Free GTA V expected to surge microtransaction earnings by 75%

Take-Two's free GTA V giveaway stunt on the Epic Store is expected to help boost Take-Two's microtransactions by 75%.

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As soon as I heard about the free GTA V giveaway on the Epic Store, I knew microtransaction spending was about to jump. It wasn't hard to figure out. The idea here is make the game free to everyone, give them a bunch of GTA Online cash, and get them hooked. Once everyone's hooked, they're more likely to keep playing and pay money for more GTAO cash. And it'll work, too. Take-Two is counting on it.

In its recent earnings report, Take-Two says Q1'21 microtransactionss should jump by 75% year-over-year, and guess which game will contribute the most? Take-Two earned $313.78 million from in-game spending in Q1'20. A quick bit of math shows Take-Two expects to make $549.12 million from mTX in Q1'21.

"We project recurrent consumer spending to grow by approximately 75%," Take-Two CFO Lainie Goldstein said in the earnings call. "This growth is expected to be driven primarily by Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K20."

"We also expect digitally delivered net bookings to double. Our forecast assumes that 81% of our current generation console game sales will be delivered digitally over 75% in the same period last year."

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For reference, Take-Two earned $1.39 billion from recurrent consumer spending in FY20, up 29% and mostly pushed by NBA 2K20 and GTA Online. That trend will continue into FY2021. This is a very strategic move on Take-Two's part and sees them opening up new monetization doorways throughout the year as it doubles-down on spending and development of its massive new 93-game slate of titles (yes, Take-Two is really making 93 new games).

In other news, GTA V has now broken 130 million sales worldwide and managed to push 10 million units in a single quarter.

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