Take-Two hits record financials, with in-game revenues up 34%

Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and NBA 2K20 all contributed to huge sales for Take-Two Interactive. The publishing company reported record fourth-quarter net bookings of $729.4 million. That is up 49% compared to the same period from the prior year. Net bookings for the fiscal 2020 hit $2.99 billion, which is up from $2.93 billion in fiscal 2019. Take-Two emphasizes that COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders led to increased engagement and spending in its games.

Take-Two’s lineup of games were especially well-positioned for success for players sheltering in place. GTA Online, Red Dead Online, and NBA 2K all have highly active online components. They also have deeply ingrained microtransaction-based business models. And players showed up to spend on those in-game items. “Recurrent consumer spending” (as Take-Two calls in-game purchases) was up 34% for the publisher in fiscal 2020. And those purchases accounted for 51% of its total net bookings.