Budget and Development Costs
Rockstar has insisted GTA 6 did not cost more than $1.5 billion to make, countering an online rumor, but it’s still probably the most expensive video game of all time.
In a report by Bloomberg into the making of GTA 6, Rockstar head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe insisted a rumor that GTA 6’s budget was more than the $1.5 billion spent on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa was wrong, although she failed to confirm the game’s exact budget. This rumor appears to have emerged from an article by Gulf News, which claimed Dubai's landmark is said to have cost $1.5 billion but the game is thought to have a $2 billion budget.
Earlier, Business Insider suggested a $1-1.5 billion budget based on industry analyst estimations as part of an interview with Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar parent company Take-Two. Zelnick wouldn’t say how much the company had spent on GTA 6 so far, but did admit it was expensive.
While GTA 6 did not cost more than $1.5 billion to develop, according to Rockstar, it is considered the most expensive video game of all time. The only video game that might claim to come close to GTA 6’s budget is space sim Star Citizen, although its now over $1 billion budget comes from ongoing sales of space ships. Bungie's recently released extraction shooter reportedly had a budget of over $250 million. Concord's initial development deal was around $200 million. In 2023, documents submitted as part of the Xbox Federal Trade Commission case accidentally revealed The Last of Us: Part II and Horizon Forbidden West each cost more than $200 million to develop. Last year, the astronomical development budgets of the Call of Duty games were revealed after a court document confirmed Activision pumped $700 million into Black Ops Cold War alone over its life cycle. GTA 6 surpasses them all.
Team Expansion and Sales Projections
As part of Bloomberg’s report is the confirmation that Rockstar now has 4,711 staff across 12 offices, up from the 2,441 staff it had when Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018. The company has doubled in size over the last eight years, which will have increased costs significantly.
As Bloomberg points out, GTA 6’s enormous budget is likely to pay off quickly, with some predicting 40 million sales and $3 billion in revenue in the first four months of the game going on sale in November. The standard edition of GTA 6 costs $80, representing a $10 hike on the standard price of a triple-A video game. The Ultimate Edition costs $100. Then there’s the expected launch of online multiplayer next year, alongside the PC version reportedly due out in Q1 2027, which will boost revenue further.
Preorder Performance
Newzoo analysis suggested GTA 6 generated approximately $180 million in digital preorders across the U.S. and the five biggest European markets during the last week of June. The analytics firm used GTA 5’s player distribution to estimate global first-week preorder spending for GTA 6 at approximately $260 million. Based on comparable preorder curves, GTA 6 is currently tracking toward $3.25 billion to $5.2 billion in cumulative sales by the end of launch week.
GTA 5 set records for generating $1 billion in three days after going on sale back in 2013, making it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history. GTA 6 seems certain to hit the $1 billion mark faster. GTA 5 went on to become the second best-selling video game of all time, with nearly 230 million units sold to date.
In other news, Bloomberg reported that Rockstar has promised its next game won’t take another eight years to develop, although future projects have not yet been detailed.
