Red Dead Redemption is one of the most talked about games from the last generation of consoles. Often described as the 'cowboy and western' version of Grand Theft Auto, the open-world sandbox game (which was also developed by Rockstar Games, the same team behind GTA) starred a cowboy named John Marston as he fought, shot, looted, rode and (controversially) hunted his way around the USA and Mexico, trying to bring his old gang to justice and get on with living a crime-free life.

Although Red Read Redemption is a fairly serious game (Rockstar even explored the end of the cowboy era, and how John and co. would fit into it), it bucked the zombie trend with the Undead Nightmare DLC. In Undead Nightmare, Marston is tasked with finding a cure for the zombie plague, having to fight through hordes of brain-munchers as he did so. The concept of the DLC did seem a little ridiculous but many players appreciated the fact that between Undead Nightmare and the game's multiplayer (which included deathmatch and CTF modes), they had another excuse to keep playing the game.

The game and its DLC reviewed so well that Red Dead Redemption got a Game of the Year version in 2011, which included every bit of content for the game. That was the last release for the game and so it may seem unusual that four years on, Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive has now reported an increase of the game's numbers, with Red Dead Redemption now having shipped 14 million copies to retailers.

That figure comes from a shareholder outreach document that Take-Two filed with the United States Government. In it, the company states that the game "rejuvenated the western genre", also saying that its DLC was "commercially successful".

In the document, the company doesn't speculate on why Red Dead Redemption has experienced a sudden spike in shipped copies (the game had shipped 13 million copies as of 2012) but a possible factor is Microsoft's big announcement that the Xbox One will soon be backward compatible with Xbox 360 games. Red Dead Redemption hasn't been confirmed for backward compatibility (yet) but it is one of the most requested games on the list, so perhaps retailers just want to be prepared for an influx of sales.

The uptick in shipped copies is also good news for those holding out for Red Dead Redemption 2. Earlier this year, Rockstar San Diego (who made the first RDR) posted several job listings, wanting to hire people with PC, Xbox and PlayStation experience to work on a "Rockstar open world game". Furthermore, Take-Two considers Red Dead Redemption to be a "permanent" franchise, so perhaps these new sales figures will finally give the company a reason to announce the next game.

Source: Take-Two Interactive