Take-Two Interactive Software, the videogame company that owns major publishers and developers such as 2K Games and Rockstar Games, has joined its competitors in reporting record revenue throughout 2020-21, generating $3.37 billion in net revenue.
In the 2021 fiscal year ending 31 March, Take-Two reported its $3.37 billion net revenue is a nine percent growth year-on-year, with several of its major franchises leading the way, including NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto, and Red Dead Redemption.
Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V continues to deliver for Take-Two, shipping more than 145 million units since its original launch on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in September 2013. In the following years, Grand Theft Auto V was also released on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the open-world crime drama coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X this November. Although the single-player component was universally praised on release, the multiplayer mode Grand Theft Auto Online is the main money maker. In Take-Two’s financial reporting, they revealed Grand Theft Auto Online reached a record number of active players in Q4 of the past fiscal year, and saw recurring consumer spending grow by 31 per cent across the year.
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NBA 2K21, the latest in the popular basketball simulation series, shipped over 10 million units since its September 2020 launch, with the franchise shipping over 111 million units in total. The NBA 2K series has a highly active community, evidenced by Take-Two’s claim of 2.3 million daily users, which was also mentioned as another strong staple of the company’s recurring consumer spending model. Like Grand Theft Auto Online, the NBA 2K series features in-game monetisation in the form of Virtual Currency, which can be used to upgrade career mode characters, and redeem digital card packs in the popular MyTEAM mode.
Other Take-Two highlights include Rockstar Games’ open-world western Red Dead Redemption 2 shipping more than 37 million units, and 2K Games’ Borderlands 3 becoming the publisher’s fastest selling title with 13 million units shipped so far. Additionally, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI has shipped a total of 11 million, role-playing game The Outer Worlds broke the three million barrier–an impressive feat considering it launched as an Xbox Game Pass title–and golf simulator PGA Tour 2K21 became the fastest-selling golfing game of the past 10 years with two million units shipped ahead of Tiger Woods’ long-term franchise partnership.
Along with Take-Two’s revenue growth, the amount of staff working for Take-Two-owned studios has also risen significantly. In the company’s presentation to investors, a chart shows by 31 March, development studio staff totalled 5,046 people, up from 4,301 in 2020. Part of this number includes Take-Two’s independent publishing label Private Division, who is working with Melbourne studio League of Geeks–known for digital tabletop game Armello–on a yet-unannounced game.
