Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball pushed back on September 25, 2026 against a report from The Verge‘s Tom Warren claiming that Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders are “heavily skewed toward PS5,” saying Xbox is “very happy” with the game’s performance and that it is already breaking records on the platform, as reported by Push Square.
Here’s the context: Ball’s response followed The Verge’s report, which cited unnamed sources inside Xbox saying GTA 6 pre-orders skew heavily toward PS5, part of a wider piece on Microsoft’s ongoing restructuring. The scale gap between the two platforms makes some tilt toward PlayStation almost inevitable: PS5 is approaching 100 million units sold worldwide, while Xbox Series X|S sits at an estimated 35 million, a roughly 3:1 install-base advantage that would show up in pre-order splits before marketing is even factored in.
Sony has also poured resources into making GTA 6 feel like a de facto PlayStation exclusive, though that’s an editorial characterization rather than an independently verified cause. Pre-orders are currently open on both PS5 and Xbox versions of GTA 6, so the demand exists on both sides even if the split doesn’t.
Honestly, the interesting part isn’t whether PS5 leads — it almost certainly does, given the install base and Sony’s marketing push — it’s that neither side has published anything resembling receipts. The Verge’s claim rests on Warren’s sources inside Xbox; Ball’s rebuttal rests on Xbox’s own private internal analysis. Right now, per the reporting, only Rockstar and the two platform holders actually know how the split breaks down, and none of them have shown their math.
Buyer enthusiasm is real regardless of platform, and demand for pricier bundles such as the Ultimate Edition pre-orders suggests the appetite is there across the board — it just doesn’t settle who’s actually ahead.
Ball, identified as Xbox’s chief strategy officer, framed the disagreement as a matter of proportionality rather than decline. “The title is breaking records for Xbox, we expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall, and our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market,” he wrote in response to Warren’s reporting.
- The Verge (Tom Warren) – reported that GTA 6 pre-orders are “heavily skewed toward PS5,” citing sources inside Xbox.
- Matthew Ball (Xbox CSO) – says Xbox is “very happy” with pre-orders and that the title is breaking platform records.
- Market context – PS5 is nearing 100 million units sold versus an estimated 35 million for Xbox Series X|S, a gap that alone would produce a lopsided split.
- No official split – neither company has published a platform-by-platform pre-order total.
What remains unclear is the actual ratio behind either claim. Ball’s line about matching Xbox’s share of the console market implies Xbox is roughly holding its expected slice, but that’s an internal figure Xbox hasn’t detailed publicly, and Warren’s “heavily skewed” description doesn’t come with a number either. Whether Rockstar, Sony, or Microsoft ever release a genuine breakdown is anyone’s guess — as it stands, both sides are asking to be taken at their word.
What to watch: keep an eye on whether Xbox follows through on Ball’s promise of more records falling “throughout the fall,” and whether Rockstar or either platform holder eventually shares hard pre-order numbers rather than characterizations of them. Until then, the platform gap is a matter of dueling claims, not confirmed data.
Does Ball’s proportional-market-share argument change how you read the PS5 lead, or does the raw gap matter more regardless of Xbox’s install base? And when it comes to settling this, would you trust platform-specific pre-order totals over post-launch sales data more — let us know where you land as more GTA 6 platform numbers surface.
