Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said on September 24, 2026 that Grand Theft Auto VI is “breaking records for XBOX” and that “our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market.” He made the comments in a post on X, replying to a report that preorders for GTA VI were leaning heavily toward PS5.
What Ball Said, and What He Was Answering
Earlier the same day, The Verge reported that sources at Xbox said GTA VI preorders were “heavily skewed toward PS5,” calling it another alarm bell for the platform. Ball replied directly to the report’s author, Tom Warren. After addressing Warren by name, his post reads: “We are very happy with GTA VI pre-orders. The title is breaking records for XBOX, we expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall, and our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market.”
The Part That Is Easy to Miss
Read closely, the two statements do not actually contradict each other. Ball did not say Xbox is selling as many copies as PlayStation. He said Xbox’s slice of GTA VI preorders matches Xbox’s slice of the console market. Microsoft does not publish Xbox Series X|S sales, so the size of that slice is not public, but if PlayStation has the larger installed base, as The Verge’s report implies, a split that mirrors it would still favor PS5. What Ball is pushing back on is the idea that Xbox owners are skipping the game, or buying it on PlayStation instead.
He also gave no numbers. “Breaking records” and “matching our share” are Microsoft’s own characterizations of internal data, and Microsoft does not publish its console sales, so neither claim can be checked from outside. Rockstar and Take-Two have not commented on the platform split.
What This Means for Players
For anyone deciding where to buy, nothing changes. GTA VI launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, the only platforms Rockstar has announced, and nothing in Ball’s post suggests any difference in content or timing between the two consoles. Pick the platform your friends play on.
If you are getting ready for launch, our GTA hub collects every guide we have for the series. Rockstar has also detailed the Goodtime State collector’s box, which does not include the game, and GTA VI: The Album, which arrives on launch day. For the bigger picture on Microsoft’s year, see our report on Xbox handing Halo to Activision and moving to close Ninja Theory, and our ranking of the best GTA games if you want to catch up on the series first.
Source: Matthew Ball, Xbox chief strategy officer, post on X, September 24, 2026.