GTA 5 Ships 75 Million Copies, As NBA 2K17 Approaches 7 Million; Mafia 3 Rises To 5 Million

Take-Two today reported earnings for the quarter ended December 31, providing some insight into how the company is performing.

First, Take-Two announced new shipment figures for a pair of 2K titles. Mafia III has now shipped 5 million units (it shipped 4.5 million during its launch week to set a new 2K record), while Civilization VI has now passed 1.5 million units. Bear in mind that shipped means the number of copies that have been sent to a retailer, not necessarily how many have been sold.

During an earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick announced that Grand Theft Auto V has shipped 75 million copies; the last publicly discussed number was 70 million units.

Also during the call, Zelnick announced that NBA 2K17 has shipped nearly 7 million units. That's up 10 percent from NBA 2K16. The new game is poised to become 2K's highest-selling sports game ever. He added that people have collectively played more than 1 billion matches, more than half of which were multiplayer.

Zelnick also revealed that Civilization total franchise sales have now risen to nearly 40 million units.

In terms of financial performance, Take-Two pulled in $476.5 million in revenue, up 15 percent compared to $414.2 million last year. GTA V, GTA Online, WWE 2K17, NBA 2K17, and Civilization VI were called out as being the largest contributors to revenue during the period.

Revenue from digital content jumped 64 percent to $240.2 million, up from $146.4 million. Additionally, "recurrent consumer spending," which includes microtransactions, DLC, and virtual currency, made up 39 percent of digital revenue and 20 percent of total revenue. GTA V, GTA Online, Civilization VI, and NBA 2K17 were mentioned as being the largest contributors here.

Overall, Take-Two posted a loss of $29.8 million for the quarter, which is better than the $42.4 million loss it took during the same period last year.

"Take-Two had a highly successful holiday quarter," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in prepared remarks. "Consumer demand for our new releases and catalog titles was strong throughout the period, and players continued to engage significantly with our games after purchase. As a result, we delivered better-than-expected bookings, including our best-ever quarter for recurrent consumer spending, along with double-digit growth in both net revenue and net cash provided by operating activities."

Take-Two paid $250 million to acquire mobile game developer Social Point earlier this month.

During an earnings call, Take-Two management made some comments about Red Dead Redemption 2.

Take-Two is just the latest to report earnings in recent weeks. Check out the stories below to see how other companies are doing; Activision, Ubisoft, and Nvidia report earnings on February 9.

• How's Xbox Doing? Key Takeaways From Microsoft's Earnings
• Sega: Here Are The Takeaways From New Earnings Report
• Square Enix Revenue And Profit Rise
• Capcom Sales And Profits Decline
• PS4 Ships 9.7M Units In Last Three Months
• Bandai Namco's Licenses Strengthen Sales And Profits
• Konami Income Falls But Profits Soar By 70%

This story has been updated.