Many players still feel that Red Dead Online never received the attention it deserved compared with GTA Online, but Take-Two’s CEO rejects the idea that it was a missed opportunity. Strauss Zelnick points to Red Dead Redemption 2 selling 85 million units and argues that the online mode has been both hugely successful and long-lasting.

GTA Online has become one of Rockstar’s most important money-making machines, and that is hard to dispute. Because of its enormous success, the Take-Two-owned studio has spent years expanding, refining and feeding the multiplayer experience with new content and improvements. Red Dead Online followed a very different path. Rockstar announced in 2022 that it would no longer receive major new content updates, and since then the western multiplayer world has mostly survived through smaller events, rotations and maintenance-style changes. It is therefore no surprise that some fans still see the online mode built inside the Red Dead Redemption 2 universe as something that could have become much bigger.

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, strongly disagrees with that reading. Following the company’s fiscal 2025-2026 financial reporting, the subject of Red Dead Online came up in interviews, and Zelnick pushed back clearly against the idea that Rockstar had left a major opportunity on the table. From his point of view, the numbers speak for themselves: “Let me be clear. There is absolutely nothing about Red Dead selling 85 million units that could be interpreted as a missed opportunity. And Red Dead Online has been immensely successful and long-lasting.” That line captures the gap between the player perspective and the publisher perspective: the community looks at the content that never arrived, while Take-Two looks at the commercial performance of the franchise.

GTA Online’s Shadow Distorts Everything

Zelnick argues that the Red Dead series is often judged unfairly because it sits next to Grand Theft Auto. If Take-Two did not also own Grand Theft Auto, he suggested, people would simply talk about the company having a massive franchise in Red Dead. He also praised the series personally: “Personally, I think Red Dead is incredible, and I love playing it. And I think the reason it continues to sell is that it’s spectacular entertainment. It’s beautiful and feels very current despite not being a new title.” As a business argument, that makes sense. It may not be enough, however, for players who imagined Red Dead Online becoming their western equivalent of GTA Online.

The heart of the debate is not whether Red Dead Redemption 2 or Red Dead Online failed. They did not. The argument is about how much untapped potential remained in such a detailed world, with such strong base systems and such a powerful atmosphere. Fans waited for larger expansions, new roles, deeper activities, properties, robberies and systems that could have turned western life into a long-term online routine in the same way Los Santos became a criminal playground. Instead, Red Dead Online became quieter, more restrained and less supported, while Rockstar shifted its main development focus toward Grand Theft Auto VI.

• Red Dead Redemption 2 has passed 85 million units sold.
• The game is now one of the most successful titles in modern video game history.
• Major content support for Red Dead Online effectively ended after 2022.
• Take-Two still describes the online mode as commercially successful and long-lasting.

Take-Two’s latest results also show that Red Dead Redemption 2 remains a meaningful contributor to the company’s business, with Red Dead Online also listed among titles that supported financial performance. That is not the same as saying the game is receiving major active content support, but it explains why Zelnick sees the situation differently. For a publisher executive, Red Dead Online does not necessarily need to reinvent itself every year to count as a success. It needs to retain players, generate revenue and preserve the value of the underlying game.

Arthur Morgan’s Story Has Become a Historic Success

Zelnick’s position is strengthened by the fact that Red Dead Redemption 2 is now counted among the three best-selling video games in history. That is a huge milestone for a game that is not an annual sports release, not a mobile phenomenon and not originally launched as a multi-generation online giant in the way GTA V eventually became. Arthur Morgan’s story has remained powerful since 2018, partly because of Rockstar’s extraordinary world design and partly because the characters and writing have held up. Years later, the game still feels surprisingly current.

None of that erases the frustration around Red Dead Online. Both things can be true at once: Red Dead Redemption 2 and its online component can be enormous business successes, while Red Dead Online can still feel, creatively and communally, like a missed opportunity to many players. Zelnick is speaking in the language of numbers. Fans are talking about the western online world that might have existed if Rockstar had treated it with the same aggressive, long-term strategy as GTA Online. The full story sits between those two positions: Red Dead Online did not fail, but many players did not get the future they expected from a world this rich, polished and atmospheric.

Source: 3DJuegos, Take-Two Interactive, VGC, PC Gamer