Rockstar's landmark open-world franchise Grand Theft Auto has shipped a staggering 125 million units according to Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, which is an 11 million increase on last year's tally of 114 million. 25 million of the 125 million total was credited to Grand Theft Auto IV, which released back in 2008.

Zelnick didn't offer a break down of sales for each instalment in the series, but attributed the series' success to Rockstar's strategy of releasing a new GTA game every few years, keeping it "special" without inducing franchise fatigue. Something that Activision is guilty of with the Call of Duty series according to Zelnick.

"It's our view that if you want intellectual properties to be permanent, then you run the risk in that circumstance of having consumers fall out of love with that franchise. [Activision] obviously views the world differently."

Zelnick did however praise Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and the multiple development studios to release a "quality product" each year, but also observed the downturn in Call of Duty: Black Ops II sales compared to Modern Warfare 3's sales.

"That's never been the case with one of ours," he said. "Ours do better each time. Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case. IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don't want our IP to hit the wall."

[Via Gamespot]