As expected, Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andrea...
As expected, Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PS2 was the #1-rented videogame in the U.S. its first week available. Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Oct. 31 showed that the…
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game earned $1.63 million in rentals -- the most any game had ever made its first week. The title even “outperformed the weekly earnings of the top 10 renting VHS titles” in the week, Rentrak said. Calling the “earning power” of the Grand Theft Auto franchise “a true phenomenon,” Rentrak Home Video Essentials Vp-Business Development Brad Hackley said Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City -- the previous 2 entries in the series -- had “grossed more than $45 million in rental revenue to date” on PS2 and Xbox. San Andreas far outperformed every other game in the week, earning 4 times as much as the #2-rented title, Midway’s Mortal Kombat: Deception on PS2 (an additional $329,074 in its 4th week, for $1.45 million to date). The Xbox version of the latter was #5 (up one, earning an additional $228,659 in the week, $999,486 to date). LucasArts Entertainment also had 2 SKUs in the top 10: Star Wars: Battlefront for PS2 at #4 (down one in its 6th week, $235,625 and $2.06 million) and the Xbox version at #8 (up 2, $176,939 and $1.43 million). But Electronic Arts had the most top 10 games -- 3 -- all for PS2: Madden NFL 2002 at #6 (down 2 in its 12th week, $200,867 and $4.39 million), Def Jam: Fight for N.Y. at #7 (down 2 in its 6th week, $179,997 and $1.78 million) and NCAA Football 2005 at #10 (up one in its 16th week, $174,057 and $4.17 million). Rounding out the top 10 were Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 for PS2 at #3 (down 2 in its 4th week, $320,247 and $1.55 million) and Microsoft’s Xbox game Fable at #9 again in its 7th week ($175,441 and $1.52 million).