Grand Theft Auto 5 has been the best-selling game in the United States since the NPD group began tracking sales. Take-Two, the parent company of series' developer Rockstar Games, recently revealed that the game has shipped 80 million copies worldwide.

A tweet by The NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella posted earlier today revealed that Grand Theft Auto 5 has been the number one best-selling game in the United States since the firm began tracking sales in 1995. The analyst later clarified that this was in terms of money, not units sold and that Call of Duty: Black Ops is the number two best-selling game. However, Piscatella couldn't say whether there was a large gap between the two titles.

It should be pointed out that The NPD Group does not have a full picture of digital game sales. The firm is only able to track the sales of certain publishers' games on certain platforms. So while it's still impressive that GTA 5 holds the best-selling crown, it's unclear whether it would still be on top if all digital game sales in the region were accounted for.

And although the NPD only tracks sales in North America, few would be surprised if GTA 5 was the reigning game in other regions too. Being a much-awaited entry in a hugely popular series, the game has worldwide appeal. GTA 5 has done especially well in the UK where it had spent 10 weeks on top of the video game sales chart as of five months ago.

Moreover, while sales of the game itself are something to celebrate for Rockstar Games and Take-Two, these figures do not cover the extent of the game's success. Helped by microtransactions purchased for its Grand Theft Auto Online multiplayer mode, Grand Theft Auto 5 has made over half a billion dollars.

Players have forked out a lot of real money (on top of the initial purchase price) to get more GTA dollars to spend on flash rides, fancy threads, weapons, and properties. There may be a notorious black market of hackers around the game getting extra currency without paying for it, but more than a few players are happy to go the proper route and line Rockstar's pockets.

The obvious question from some, though, is whether Rockstar has another record setting game on its hands with Red Dead Redemption 2. Now delayed to 2018, the highly anticipated cowboy game has just as much interest around it as GTA 5 did prior to its release and it may feature more microtransactions than GTA Online too. Can the new Rockstar game dethrone its elder? Watch this space.

Grand Theft Auto 5 is available on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Source: Matt Piscatella – Twitter