NBA 2K21 sells 8 million units despite next-gen price hike

Annual basketball simulator NBA 2K21 has shipped eight million copies, even with the game’s controversial price hike to $70.  

Revealed in the latest investors call for publisher Take-Two, CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that the latest NBA 2K title was selling in the face of the initial cost outrage.

“In terms of frontline pricing for NBA 2K21, I think that worked out very much as expected,” the CEO explained.

“And as planned, it’s in a premium offering at the highest possible level, the title was built from the ground up for next-gen, so first title here that has been created that way. And the acceptance by consumers has been nothing short of extraordinary, the title sold in over 8 million units. Now, we haven’t talked about pricing on other titles. So it would be premature to discuss that we’ll talk about that and title-by-title basis going forward.”

With its next-gen price increase, NBA 2K21 did offer numerous improvements on the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the yearly basketball release. There was an overhauled Neighborhood mode alongside higher quality graphics across the board.

A price increase wasn’t the only controversy surrounding the game. Shortly after release, unskippable ads for the Oculus Quest 2 littered matches. They were swiftly removed after claiming they were an accident.