GTA2 ships a million copies
The sequel arrives the same season its maker is sold
Quick facts
- Released
- October 1999
- Shipped
- More than one million copies in fiscal 1999
- Share of Take-Two's revenue
- About 10.3% (plus 6.1% from the original GTA)
What happened
GTA2 arrived in October 1999, weeks after Take-Two bought its developer. Still top-down but denser than the original, it moved the formula forward with rival gangs whose respect the player could win or burn. Take-Two's annual report records the commercial result: more than one million copies shipped within the fiscal year, making GTA2 alone about a tenth of the company's revenue, with the original Grand Theft Auto still contributing six percent more.
Why it matters
GTA2 proved the franchise was a franchise: two games, sixteen percent of an entire publisher's revenue, before a single polygon of Liberty City existed. It also closed the top-down era; everything after this is the 3D age.
How we know
Ship month, the million-copy figure, and the revenue shares come from Take-Two's fiscal 1999 annual report filed with the SEC. Wireframe's oral history covers the period's development context.
Sources
- Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.. Take-Two Interactive annual report (10-K) for fiscal year 1999, filed January 2000 (SEC EDGAR) (2000) · Primary source (author-declared)sec.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Wireframe (Raspberry Pi Press). The chaotic origins of Grand Theft Auto (Wireframe magazine, archived) (2021) · Reputable sourceweb.archive.org · The domain "web.archive.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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