Red Dead Redemption 2 record-setting opening weekend, Take-Two soars

Red Dead Redemption 2Rockstar Games

• Take-Two Interactive announced Tuesday that its newly launched Red Dead Redemption 2 video game achieved the best-ever opening weekend.
• The game had more than $725 million of retail sales worldwide during its first three days, blowing past analysts’ expectations.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 also beat Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
• Watch Take-Two Interactive trade in real time here.

Take-Two stock is soaring on Tuesday, up 9%, after the video-game maker’s newly launched Red Dead Redemption 2 blew past expectations and achieved the best-ever opening weekend.

The company said Red Dead Redemption 2 achieved more than $725 million of retail sales worldwide during its first three days, blowing the investment banking company Piper Jaffray’s past projections of $400 million to $500 million. 

According to Take-Two, the launch was the single-biggest opening weekend in the history of entertainment, and the second-highest grossing entertainment launch of all time, following the company’s previously released title, Grand Theft Auto V, which achieved over $1 billion in retail sell-through in three days.

Red Dead Redemption 2 also beat its biggest rival, Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. That saw $500 million of sales during its launch weekend, Baird analyst Colin Sebastian told Bloomberg.

Take-Two is expected to report its second-quarter results on Wednesday, November 7, with analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expecting adjusted earnings of $0.91 a share on revenue of $547.4 million. 

Shares of Take-Two were up 7% this year.

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