Did a reporter tell Take-Two it has no hits? What the WSJ really asked, and what the numbers say

A short clip from Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick's talk at WSJ Tech: California has spread across gaming sites and social media since Nov. 4. In it, Jessica Toonkel, The Wall Street Journal's deputy media editor, raises a concern that Grand Theft Auto VI is the company's big hit and that it doesn't have enough others. The audience laughs, Zelnick looks baffled, and he answers with a list of franchises and three words: "examine the facts."

Online, the moment has been passed around as a reporter telling the owner of GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 that it has no hits. The full 23-minute video, which the Journal posted on YouTube, shows a narrower question about how much Take-Two leans on one game. Take-Two's own filings give both sides something to point to.

What was asked

The session, called The Biggest Launch in Gaming, took place in Napa Valley, California. Toonkel opened by saying GTA 6 was days away, and Zelnick corrected her: two weeks.

She then noted that Take-Two's shares were more than 20% below their high despite the excitement around the game, and asked what the market was missing. Zelnick said he doesn't argue with the market and would rather stick to the fundamentals.

Toonkel pressed on. She said there was a concern that GTA 6 is the company's big hit and that its library lacks enough others, and she asked how he would knock that down.

Coming straight after the share price, that reads as a question about what worries investors. She didn't say Take-Two has never had a hit. It's still easy to see why the wording landed the way it did: Take-Two has sold-in more than 230 million copies of GTA V alone.

What Zelnick said

He opened with a number: 15 franchises that have each sold at least 5 million units in a single release. He called that the best collection of owned intellectual property in the video game business, said it shows in Take-Two's revenue, profit and market value, and told anyone worried to examine the facts.

Then he ran through the list:

• Rockstar Games: Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, GTA Online and Red Dead Online.
• 2K: NBA 2K, which he called the second-biggest sports title in the world and the biggest in North America, plus WWE 2K, BioShock, Borderlands and Civilization.
• Mobile: Words With Friends, Empires & Puzzles and hundreds of other titles.

How his numbers check out

Zelnick undersold Rockstar. He put the recent Red Dead Redemption at over 65 million units, well below Take-Two's own count. These are the latest figures, reported from Take-Two's Aug. 7 results. They count sold-in units: copies sold digitally or shipped to stores, not copies in players' hands.

He didn't name all 15 franchises, and Take-Two's annual report doesn't give that count.

Is the worry real?

Take-Two's annual report for the year ended March 31, 2026, gives each side something.

• For Zelnick: Grand Theft Auto products made up 12.4% of net revenue, in a year with no new GTA game. Mobile games made up 50.1%, and NBA 2K and Borderlands led the year's growth.
• For the question: the five best-selling franchises made up 54.3% of net revenue. The same report warns that Take-Two depends on the future success of Grand Theft Auto and other hit titles. Its outlook for the fiscal year ending in March, $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion in net bookings, is about 20% growth at the midpoint, and it counts on GTA 6 arriving Nov. 19.

Take-Two isn't short of hits. What investors are weighing is how much of the next year rests on one of them. Its shares closed at $208.90 on Nov. 4, up about 7% on the day and about 21% below their 52-week high of $265.94, according to Yahoo Finance.

How the clip was covered

Most gaming sites took Zelnick's side. TheGamer called the question baffling and Insider Gaming called it bizarre. Playfront wrote that the interview went off the rails, and PC Guru said the reporter hadn't done her research.

Others looked at the full video. GTA Boom wrote that the real exchange is more interesting than the meme, and Inven Global reported that viewers split: some said the question was about relying on one giant game, while others said the way it was put invited the backlash. We found no response from Toonkel or the Journal as of Nov. 5.

Who runs what

Some posts call Zelnick Rockstar's CEO. He's the chairman and CEO of Take-Two, which owns Rockstar Games, 2K and Zynga. Rockstar's president is Sam Houser, and our guide to who makes GTA 6 covers the team.

The rest of the talk

• The delay. Zelnick described how GTA 6's second delay reached him, 10 days after a board retreat.
• AI. He called Grand Theft Auto handcrafted and said AI has saved Take-Two relatively little on making games so far.
• The cost. Asked what GTA 6 cost, he gave no figure, Sportskeeda reported, saying only that it was expensive and took a long time. Our guide to how long GTA 6 took to make has what's known.
• Netflix. Toonkel also asked about Netflix's trouble breaking into games, Beebom reported. Netflix premiered GTA 6's An Extended Look on Aug. 27. Zelnick is skeptical that a traditional media company can easily get into games, according to a summary from Scuttlebutt.

Take-Two reports its next results on Monday, Nov. 9, with a call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, and our preview has what to listen for. GTA 6 comes out Nov. 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.