The boss of Take-Two believes 2K’s WWE video games could be much more successful than they currently are, pointing to “ongoing opportunities to improve the quality of the game.”
While 2K’s WWE franchise is successful, it’s overshadowed by 2K’s NBA franchise, which makes mountains of cash for parent company Take-Two. Both games are developed by the California-based studio Visual Concepts. The most recent release was WWE 2K26, which IGN awarded a 7/10. “WWE 2K26 benefits most from having been built on a tremendous foundation – one that has barely had to change, but continues to in ways that are starting to hurt more than help,” we said. WWE 2K27 is already confirmed, likely for a March 2027 release date.
In its latest financial report, Take-Two said WWE 2K26 “recurrent consumer spending” is up 20% year-over-year and more than 85 million matches played, an increase of 7% compared to WWE 2K25. But Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN that he believes the WWE franchise could grow significantly, saying Visual Concepts “always wants to do better.”
“We’re very proud of Metacritic score, we’re proud of how the title performed,” Zelnick said. “We have great partners at TKO led by Nick Khan. And of course everything related to WWE continues to grow. The team over there is just crushing it. So we’re thrilled to be in business with TKO and WWE.
“I do think there’s ongoing opportunities to improve the quality of the game. I do think that we can give consumers more of what they want. And I know our team at Visual Concepts always wants to do better. We’re never in the business of patting ourselves on the back. We believe that arrogance is the enemy of continued success. And I think that title could be double or triple the size that it is as long as we delight consumers, and as long as we give them something new and not expected that’s consistent with the brand that they love. That’s our job.”
The question will be, how can Visual Concepts change the game to get WWE to the level Zelnick clearly believes it could be hitting? Monetization has been a thorny subject for players recently, and 2K recently had to change the way the Ringside Pass works in WWE 2K26 following widespread criticism from the community.
Ever since the new battle pass system was revealed for this year’s 2K wrestling release, players had expressed concerns over how it would replace the traditional six DLC packs that they’d come to expect — the crux of the issue being that it would now take dozens of hours of play to unlock members of the roster by completing all 40 tiers of the pass, rather than the instant unlocks that DLC packs used to grant.
This meant that even when paying for the premium tiers of the Ringside Pass, fans would have to sink more hours into their busy schedules than anticipated, just to receive the wrestling icons they’d already purchased.
But from Season 2 onward, all four characters in the Premium track of the pass are unlocked immediately in Tier 1. Meanwhile, the amount of XP needed to progress through each tier was reduced from 800 to 625, a number 2K says wouldn’t be increased again. Each Ringside Pass costs $9.99/£8.99 per season, with an annual pass available for $49.99/£44.99.
All eyes will be on WWE 2K27, then, to see what improvements Visual Concepts comes up with that might expanding the audience for the game.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
