Will Rockstar Games be able to sustain momentum with GTA Online as a standalone title?

GTA Online has been ludicrously successful. It's like Rockstar Games' very own cheat-code that gets incrementally more profitable with each passing year.

In a recent financial earnings call, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick detailed how GTA Online generated more revenue in December 2020 than any other period since the game's launch.

That is absolutely absurd. Only a handful of games in history have had that kind of success, and GTA Online has had it for seven years. Fans were expecting Rockstar to wind things down and introducing a new GTA Online experience that coincides with the launch of a proper mainline sequel.

Yet, Rockstar's next big project ended up being a next-gen GTA 5 remaster, along with the launch of GTA Online as a standalone title.

Will Rockstar Games be able to sustain momentum with GTA Online as a standalone title?

A standalone title essentially means that GTA Online will be available for purchase as a separate entity. Previously, it was bundled with a copy of GTA 5, with the Story Mode and Online mode as two separate game modes.

Rockstar adopted this method for Red Dead Online, which is now a standalone title. GTA Online and Red Dead Online will now have a chance to evolve and grow independent of the Story Mode.

Heist updates and content expansion

A standalone title will make GTA Online akin to games like Apex Legends or Fortnite which see regular updates and "Seasons."

For instance, in the Cayo Perico Heist DLC, the game saw an uptick in the number of players and sales through microtransactions. This suggests that Rockstar has a good grip on its content schedules; however, it will definitely need to up its game in terms of proper roadmaps and good communication.

Communication has always been a bit loose when it comes to GTA Online as each new update has always been a bit of a surprise. The Los Santos Summer Special and Cayo Perico Heist update were announced ahead of time.

Will new players buy a standalone GTA Online game?

A standalone title is only valuable to players who don't own GTA 5 and those who are only looking to play the Online component on next-gen consoles.

Players are going to wait and see if Online evolves as a result of becoming a standalone title. New fans interested in the Story Mode will only buy the Expanded and Enhanced version of the game on next-gen consoles.

It will be quite interesting to see how many players, after finishing the Story Mode, then choose to buy GTA Online as a standalone title.