Over the weekend, loose hacker collective ShunyHunters claim to have, in a pretty roundabout way, hit Rockstar Games. The group threatened the publisher to either pay a ransom, or have their data leaked. In response, the company claims that only “a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed”. In turn, the hacker group decided to make good on their threat, and a bit ahead of schedule.
Kotaku reports that the hackers released the data that it had a day ahead of its posted deadline. At least, it appears so to those on the western hemisphere. Per the report, the hackers also posted on their dark web website that they were not planning to sell the data as some have claimed. They also say that ShinyHunters do not operate a Telegram channel, something that the claim of them selling the data for US$200,000 (~RM790,200) mentioned. Adding insult to injury is the closing of the note which reads “how does it feel to be a headline?”
In a separate report by the outlet, the leaked data does not contain anything about GTA 6. So no source codes or player data. Instead, the stolen data contains metrics for GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, or more specifically, their online modes. Though these still make for interesting reads.
For instance, the leak reveals that GTA Online makes just shy of US$10 million (~RM39.51 million) a week, or just under an estimated USD$500 million (~RM1.98 billion) a year. For Red Dead Online, these numbers are just over US$500,000 (~RM1.98 million) and about US$26 million (~RM102.72 million) respectively. Quite the contrast between the two, and probably for obvious reasons.
Continuing with GTA Online, the platform with the highest number of weekly active users is the PS5, nearly twice that of the PS4. That being said, spending on the former is way higher, at just under US$4.5 million (~RM17.78 million) a week. The PS4 isn’t even the second spot for highest spending. That goes to the Xbox Series X instead.
Also revealed is that only about 4% of GTA Online players are paying users, at least between September 2025 and April 2026. And it’s this 4% that’s spending US$500 million in the same window. So it’s pretty obvious why not only gamers, but Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two – and its investors – are so excited for GTA 6. Of course, it’s very unlikely that Rockstar Games would ever confirm or deny these figures.
(Source: Kotaku [1], [2])
