Rockstar announced today that both Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online saw a record-breaking holiday season. You can find the full post from Rockstar here along with the key details below.
The Diamond Heist in GTA Online resulted in December representing the highest player count numbers to date.
Thanks to you all, Grand Theft Auto Online is entering its seventh year more popular than ever. After breaking records for daily, weekly and monthly average players in July and August consecutively following the release of The Diamond Casino & Resort, the December launch of The Diamond Casino Heist broke even those records, bringing players back in bigger numbers than ever before over the holiday period. The back-to-back release of these two colossal updates – the biggest GTA Online has ever seen – also made December 2019 our largest month ever in terms of player numbers.
Meanwhile in Red Dead Online the introduction of the Moonshiners role along with the new Outlaw Pass resulted in the same type of success.
Meanwhile, the untamed open spaces of Red Dead Online moved out of beta in 2019 and began to forge its own path to becoming a dynamic online world as we optimized animation speeds and controls for better PvP combat, added anti-griefing measures, infused additional life into the world with new Free Roam activities, and introduced the Outlaw Pass for a whole new system of rewards and improved progress. As the year went on, players had even more reasons to immerse themselves in the world and their characters with the introduction of the first four of many Frontier Pursuits – The Bounty Hunter, Trader, Collector and Moonshiner – allowing players to progress through multiple roles simultaneously while earning new role-specific skills, clothing, weapons and other items along the way. These changes and additions helped push Red Dead Online to a new peak in player numbers in December following the release of the Moonshiners update, topping those numbers again in January.
The good news is that players of both will be rewarded with some free bonuses over the next two weeks. Here are the details:
GTA Online will feature bonus cash of up to GTA$2,000,000 in its biggest cash giveaway yet. Starting on January 30th you can earn GTA$1,000,000 just by playing before February 5th and will be able to earn another GTA$1,000,000 by playing between February 6th and February 12th.
Red Dead Online players will receive a series of gifts including free access to select roles, special role item giveaways and more, including:
The Gunslinger’s Cache: Play between January 28th and February 3rd to get a Free Schofield Revolver, a Free Varmint Rifle and the Devastating Ammo Bundle, which includes 100x Split Point Revolver Ammo, 100x High Velocity Pistol Ammo, 100x Express Repeater Ammo, 100x Slug Shotgun Ammo, and 20x Explosive Rifle Ammo.
The Bounty Hunter’s Kit: Play between February 4th and February 10th to get a Free Bounty Hunter license, 25x Bolas, and 25x Tracking Arrows.
Our Take
It’s hard to believe that over 7 years later, GTA Online is seeing record player numbers. The support both from Rockstar and the playerbase has been tremendous and we don’t think it will slow down any time soon.
Meanwhile in Red Dead Online it’s great to see the Wild West offering expanding. It’s also something we’ve talked about regularly over the past several weeks. If you’re looking to jump into Red Dead Online, we highly recommend this article from Dan to give you an idea of what to expect!
