GTA 5 close to 100 million shipped, NBA 2K18 is now 2K's highest-selling sports title
NBA 2K18 has shipped 10 million units, setting a new record for the franchise, according to Take-Two's Q1 financial report.
Take-Two announced in its Q1 fiscal year 2019 financial report NBA 2K18 is its highest-selling sports title ever.
The sports game has shipped 10 million units, and the NBA 2K franchise as a whole has shipped 80 million units worldwide.
It was also noted in the report Grand Theft Auto 5 is approaching 100 million units shipped. That's up from 90 million in December, when the company reported its Q3 fiscal year 2018 earnings.
Take-Two reconfirmed the fall release window for NBA 2K Playgrounds 2, formerly known as NBA Playgrounds 2. The Saber Interactive-developed title will be made available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
It was also reiterated Kerbal Space Program would be released through Tencent’s WeGame distribution platform as a premium PC game at a date to be determined.
“Fiscal 2019 is off to a solid start, with first quarter operating results that exceeded our expectations,” said Strauss Zelnick, chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “This performance was driven by better-than-expected recurrent consumer spending on Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K18, as well as robust ongoing demand for Grand Theft Auto 5, which is now approaching 100 million units sold-in to date.
“We are incredibly excited about the October 26 launch of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as the upcoming releases of NBA 2K19 – which marks the 20th anniversary of the series and the 30th anniversary of the Visual Concepts development team – and WWE 2K19."
A call to investors has kicked off, and if anything interesting comes out of it, we’ll update this post. That said, Strauss is never one to spill the beans when it comes to unannounced games, release dates, and the like.
The money, honey
For the first quarter of fiscal year 2019, Take-Tow reported net revenue of $388 million, up from $418.2 million year-over-year (yoy). The largest contributors to revenue were GTA 5, NBA 2K18, GTA Online, WWE 2K 18, among others.
Recurrent consumer spending, which covers virtual currency, add-on content and in-game purchases, accounted for 62% of total net revenue, as compared to 41% yoy.
Digitally-delivered net revenue was $315 million, up from $268.2 million yoy. Digital revenue accounted for 81% of total net revenue, as compared to 64% in Q1 2018. The largest contributors to digitally revenue were GTA Online, GTA 5, NBA 2K18, among others.
Net income increased to $71.7 million, while net booking were $288.3 million, down from $348.3 million yoy. Net bookings from recurrent consumer spending accounted for 63% of the total, up from 59% yoy.
Catalog sales accounted for $282.3 million in this sector, and digitally-delivered net booking were $252.8 million, down from $280.9 million yoy.
As with Activision Blizzard, and EA, net bookings constitute items sold digitally or sold-in (to retail) physically. This includes licensing fees, merchandise, in-game advertising, strategy guides and publisher incentives.