Rockstar’s 2018 Western has crossed another huge milestone. Red Dead Redemption 2 has now sold 87 million units worldwide, according to figures from publisher Take-Two Interactive.
The whole Red Dead franchise sits at 116 million units. That means RDR2 alone makes up roughly 75% of everything the series has ever sold. The remaining 29 million or so covers Red Dead Revolver, the original Red Dead Redemption, and its various rereleases and ports.
One quick note on the number: Take-Two reports “sold-in” units, which covers copies shipped to retailers and sold through digital stores. It isn’t a count of 87 million individual players. Multiple purchases, different platform versions, and bundles all count separately.
Take-Two’s other numbers put the achievement in context. Grand Theft Auto V is at 230 million units, with the wider GTA franchise at 475 million. The NBA 2K series, which ships a new game every single year, has sold nearly 175 million. Borderlands is over 100 million. Civilization is over 80 million.
So one Western from 2018 has sold about half as much as two decades of annual basketball games, and more than the entire Civilization series.
Still no DLC, still 30fps
What makes the number stranger is how little Rockstar has done with the game since. There was never a single-player story expansion, despite the original Red Dead Redemption getting the beloved Undead Nightmare in 2010. GTA IV got two full expansions. RDR2 got none.
Red Dead Online is still playable, but Rockstar scaled back major updates in 2022 to shift resources toward the next Grand Theft Auto. It now runs on seasonal events and smaller tweaks rather than the constant content drops GTA Online enjoys.
There’s also still no native PS5 or Xbox Series X/S version. Console players are stuck at 30fps through backward compatibility, running the old PS4 and Xbox One builds. Rumors of a current-gen edition pop up regularly, but Rockstar has never confirmed one.
