NEW YORK, June 18, 2026, 17:06 (EDT)
- Take-Two TTWO finished up 4.93% at $239.28 after Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto VI preorders will open June 25.
- Investors are watching this move as they want confirmation the Nov. 19 launch is still set after prior delays.
- Stocks gained in the U.S. on Thursday. Markets will close Friday in observance of Juneteenth.
Take-Two Interactive Software shares jumped Thursday after Rockstar Games announced Grand Theft Auto VI preorders will start June 25. The company keeps its plan to release the game on Nov. 19. Investors have been waiting for more detail on the videogame’s timing.
Take-Two Interactive shares finished at $239.28, up 4.93%. The stock moved between $233.23 and $242.15 during the session. Volume reached 7.16 million, the company’s investor-relations stock feed showed.
Why now? Take-Two’s whole fiscal 2027 is built around GTA VI. Getting a preorder date doesn’t guarantee they’ll hit launch, but it does pull the calendar out of theory mode after years of leaks, delays, and shifting release targets.
GTA VI could become the world’s biggest videogame launch, Reuters said Thursday, with sales that could hit billions of dollars in just days. That’s based on the strength of Rockstar and the Grand Theft Auto brand. GTA V, which came out in 2013, has sold close to 230 million copies.
Broader indexes moved up. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.91% and the S&P 500 gained 1.08% Thursday in a session that saw U.S. stocks bounce back. Nasdaq said markets will be shut Friday, June 19, for Juneteenth. Reuters
Take-Two runs a different setup compared to other game publishers. Electronic Arts and Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard chase console and live-service dollars, but analysts put GTA VI in a separate bucket, viewing it as more of an event than a standard game launch. Last month, Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese pointed to the GTA VI release date as “the primary focus heading into the print,” citing Rockstar’s track record of delays. Reuters
Eyes are on the preorder page as investors look for pricing and edition details. Brian Pitz at BMO Capital Markets kept an outperform on Take-Two and named it a top pick, sticking with a $280 price target, Investor’s Business Daily said. The report noted preorder information could show if the base game price is set higher than the typical $70 for major releases.
Take-Two’s outlook is still up for interpretation. Last month, the company put out guidance for fiscal 2027 net bookings at $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion. Net bookings covers products and services sold digitally or shipped physically, and comes before some accounting timing effects. CEO Strauss Zelnick said he expects GTA VI to push fiscal 2027 to “new record levels of operating performance.” Take-Two Interactive
The risk is that the stock may have already run up on good news. If pricing comes in soft, premium editions are limited, the next GTA Online looks weak, or if there’s another delay, that could hurt the bull case fast. Reuters said last month that Take-Two’s bookings outlook for fiscal 2027 is below the $9.10 billion average analyst estimate from LSEG.
Thursday’s news looked like a de-risking event for the market. No launch, no revenue at this point. But with the stock so closely linked to a single title, just getting a clear preorder date got shares moving.
