What Is the Highest-Grossing Video Game? Minecraft, GTA V and the Real Records

“What is the highest-grossing video game of all time?” sounds like it should have one clean answer. It does not. The result changes depending on whether you mean copies sold, total revenue, a single day, mobile revenue, or inflation-adjusted arcade earnings.

That distinction matters because a game can sell fewer copies and still generate more money through subscriptions, in-game purchases, or years of paid content. Here is the defensible version of the answer using the records and company filings that are actually available.

The quick answer

Best-selling single game by copies: Minecraft, with Guinness World Records listing more than 350 million units sold as of April 2025.
Highest 24-hour video-game revenue record: Grand Theft Auto V, with Guinness listing US$815.7 million on September 17, 2013.
Current GTA V company sales figure: Take-Two’s June 30, 2026 quarterly filing says GTA V has sold in more than 230 million units worldwide.
Highest-grossing arcade title in Guinness’s record entry: PAC-Man, with US$3.5 billion in estimated revenue through 1999.
Highest-grossing mobile title in Guinness’s record entry: Candy Crush Saga, with US$20 billion as of September 27, 2023.

Minecraft leads the copies-sold question

Guinness World Records lists Minecraft as the best-selling videogame, with 350,000,000 units sold and a record date of April 2025. That is a unit-sales record, not a claim that Minecraft has generated more lifetime revenue than every game in every business model.

The difference is important. Minecraft has existed across PC, consoles, mobile devices, and multiple editions. Its record answers the question “which single game has sold the most copies?” It does not settle the separate question of which game has produced the most money.

GTA V owns the one-day launch record

Guinness’s record page lists Grand Theft Auto V as the highest-grossing videogame in 24 hours. The figure is US$815.7 million, achieved on September 17, 2013, the game’s release date. Take-Two also said GTA V reached US$1 billion in retail sales in three days, describing that milestone as the fastest any entertainment release had reached it at the time.

The newer company filing gives a sense of the game’s unusual lifespan. Take-Two’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 says GTA V has sold in over 230 million units worldwide and includes access to GTA Online. The filing uses “sold-in,” which is the company’s channel measure for units sold digitally or into retail distribution. It is not identical to a separately reported count of copies personally purchased and still played.

The same filing says the Grand Theft Auto series has sold in over 470 million units worldwide. That is a franchise figure, not a GTA V figure, so the two numbers should not be merged into one headline.

Why arcade and mobile answers look different

Arcade games make comparisons messy because revenue includes coins played and cabinet sales, while modern games may combine full-game sales with downloadable content and recurring spending. Guinness lists PAC-Man as the highest-grossing arcade videogame, estimating US$3.5 billion from its 1980 launch through 1999. The calculation includes estimated plays and cabinet sales.

Mobile has its own record category. Guinness lists Candy Crush Saga as the highest-grossing mobile videogame, with US$20 billion in revenue as of September 27, 2023. That figure is not a copy-sales total. It reflects a free-to-download business built around purchases inside the game.

Older arcade estimates also produce inflation-adjusted arguments for Space Invaders and other classics. Those estimates should not be presented as directly comparable with an audited publisher filing. The underlying time periods, currencies, revenue definitions, and inflation methods differ.

Confirmed versus unconfirmed

Confirmed: Guinness lists Minecraft above 350 million units as the best-selling videogame in its April 2025 entry.
Confirmed: Guinness lists GTA V’s US$815.7 million as the highest videogame revenue generated in 24 hours.
Confirmed: Take-Two’s 2026 quarterly filing says GTA V has sold in over 230 million units and the GTA series over 470 million.
Confirmed: Guinness lists PAC-Man as its highest-grossing arcade videogame and Candy Crush Saga as its highest-grossing mobile videogame.
Unconfirmed: a single universal lifetime-revenue champion across every era and business model. Public lists mix estimates and incompatible definitions, so a one-line “most profitable game ever” answer needs a footnote.

What to remember

If someone asks for the best-selling game, say Minecraft. If they ask about the biggest one-day launch, say GTA V. If they ask about mobile or arcade revenue, use the category-specific answers. The boring definitions are doing useful work here; without them, the record book becomes a comparison of apples, loot boxes, and quarters.