I can already hear you lot typing in comments.
Yes, GTA Online has been rated in Australia. That might come as a bit of a surprise, considering its age, but would you believe this is the first time Australian Classification has ever rated the enduringly popular online sandbox as its own separate product.
GTA Online is the multiplayer component of Grand Theft Auto V, a game that has been rated R18+ by the Classification Board three times since it launched on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. GTAV received its first rating ahead of launch in 2013 and made a splash at the time for being the first game in the series to receive an R18+ rating in Australia. Its second rating came in 2014 ahead of launch on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It was rated once again in 2015 when it moved to the PC. This will be the game’s fourth Australian rating decision.
GTA V is now set to launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 14. The sole reason for porting this decade-old game to a third generation of consoles is, of course, Grand Theft Auto Online. Never has Take-Two Interactive ever had a more reliable cash cow. In 2020, eight years after launch, GTA V was still bringing in just shy of US$1 billion (A$1,404,465,000) in revenue. That’s roughly $2.5 million US dollars per day.
That tracks here at home, too. GTA V is a familiar sight in the IGEA Top 10 sales charts for Australia, and that’s all on GTA Online. It’s so rarely dropped out of the top five highest sellers week-to-week since 2013 that it might as well be a permanent fixture. It has been in this position since 2013. In the last week of January 2022, a week that included the launch of Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Grand Theft Auto V sat at #3 on the Australian charts with its stablemate Red Dead Redemption 2 at #4. Rainbow Six Siege, another reliable earner, rounded out the top five.
For this re-release, this rating makes Rockstar’s already transparent priorities crystal clear. Gotta keep the money rolling in.
In case you were wondering, GTA Online has been rated R18+ in Australia for all the usual reasons.
Leave a Reply