‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ Calls Down the Thunder with Dynamite Debut

The Western-themed video game Red Dead Redemption 2 was released on October 26 and quickly wrangled up some notable records. Here’s what you need to know about the lights-out success of Red Dead Redemption 2 as told through a trio of quotes from another great Western, the movie Tombstone*…

1. “You called down the thunder, well now you’ve got it.”

Thanks to huge hype and a massive marketing push rumored to cost upwards of $200 million, Red Dead Redemption 2 grossed over $725 million in worldwide sales in its first weekend of release. In this press release, the game’s publisher Rockstar Games calls this “entertainment’s biggest opening weekend of all time”.

For comparison: the movie that currently holds the record for biggest opening weekend ever, Avengers: Infinity War, made a measly $257 million in its debut weekend. Though a movie ticket is much cheaper than a video game, so this isn’t really an apples-to-apples comparison. 

2. “I have two guns, one for each of you.”

Driving massive interest in Red Dead Redemption 2 were a couple of key factors: (1) the original game, released in 2010, is incredibly beloved by fans and critics alike (holding a strong Metacritic score of 95); and (2) the new game has received even stronger reviews (currently holding a 97 on Metacritic). 

The Hollywood Reporter wrote in its review of the game: “What Rockstar has delivered in Red Dead Redemption 2 is not just the best game of the year, but the best game of the decade.” And some fans are already putting Red Dead Redemption 2 in the conversation about best games of all time.  

3. “Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave.”

While Rockstar Games has done a good job fueling the narrative of Red Dead Redemption 2 as a historical video game juggernaut that’s obliterating records left and right, the game actually comes in a distance second in the record books to another game… Grand Theft Auto V.

That game (also from Rockstar) was released in 2013 and grossed over $1 billion in just three days. The loophole here is that Grand Theft Auto V was released on a Tuesday, so Red Dead Redemption 2 still holds the record for biggest “weekend” opening—just not the biggest three-day opening. In public relations, that careful choice of words is what you might call “spin”. Such mythmaking was not uncommon in the Old West.   

*Editor’s Note: If you’ve never watched the movie “Tombstone”, you should do so immediately