Rockstar has insisted GTA 6 didn’t price greater than $1.5 billion to make, countering a web-based rumor, but it surely’s nonetheless most likely the costliest online game of all time.
In a sweeping report by Bloomberg into the making of GTA 6, Rockstar head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe insisted a rumor that GTA 6’s price range was greater than the $1.5 billion spent on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa was unsuitable, though she failed to substantiate the sport’s precise price range. This rumor seems to have emerged from a July 2025 article by Gulf Information, which claimed “Dubai’s landmark is claimed to have price $1.5 billion however the recreation is assumed to have a $2 billion price range.”
Earlier this 12 months, Enterprise Insider prompt a $1-1.5 billion price range based mostly on business analyst estimations as a part of an interview with Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar guardian firm Take-Two. Zelnick wouldn’t say how a lot the corporate had spent on GTA 6 to date, however did admit “it was costly.”
Whereas GTA 6 didn’t price greater than $1.5 billion to develop, based on Rockstar, it’s thought-about the costliest online game of all time. The one online game that may declare to come back near GTA 6’s price range is house sim Star Citizen, though its now over $1 billion price range comes from ongoing gross sales of house ships. Bungie’s not too long ago launched extraction shooter reportedly had a price range of over $250 million, for instance. Harmony’s preliminary growth deal was round $200 million, based on a report by Kotaku. In 2023, paperwork submitted as a part of the Xbox Federal Commerce Fee case unintentionally revealed The Final of Us: Half II and Horizon Forbidden West every price greater than $200 million to develop. Final 12 months, the astronomical growth budgets of the Name of Responsibility video games have been revealed for the primary time after a courtroom doc confirmed Activision pumped $700 million into Black Ops Chilly Struggle alone, though that was over the shooter’s life cycle. GTA 6, clearly, surpasses all of them.
As a part of Bloomberg’s report is the affirmation that Rockstar now has 4,711 workers throughout 12 places of work, up from the two,441 workers it had when Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 got here out in 2018. The corporate has doubled in dimension during the last eight years, which may have elevated prices considerably.
As Bloomberg factors out, GTA 6’s monumental price range is prone to repay fairly rapidly, with some predicting an eye-watering 40 million gross sales and $3 billion in income within the first 4 months of the sport occurring sale in November. The usual version of GTA 6 prices $80 — a $10 hike on the usual value of a triple-A online game. The Final Version, which some think about to be an important buy, prices $100. Then there’s the anticipated launch of on-line multiplayer subsequent 12 months (possibly tied to the launch of the PC model, which is reportedly due out Q1 2027), which can absolutely increase income even additional. In brief, even when it’s simply shy of $1.5 billion, GTA 6’s price range doesn’t really feel like a lot of a threat.
In July, Newzoo evaluation prompt GTA 6 generated roughly $180 million in digital preorders throughout the U.S. and the 5 largest European markets over the past week of June (GTA 6 preorders went reside at midnight, June 25). The analytics agency used GTA 5’s participant distribution (round 69% of GTA 5’s lifetime console gamers sit inside these six markets) to then estimate international first-week preorder spending for GTA 6 at roughly $260 million. Primarily based on comparable preorder curves, GTA 6 is at the moment monitoring towards $3.25 billion to $5.2 billion in cumulative gross sales by the top of launch week, it stated.
GTA 5 set data for producing $1 billion in three days after occurring sale again in 2013, making it the fastest-selling leisure product in historical past (Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame ran it shut, making $1 billion on the international field workplace in 5 days). GTA 6 appears sure to hit the $1 billion mark quicker than each. GTA 5 went on to turn out to be the second best-selling online game of all time, with almost 230 million items sold-in up to now. Solely Minecraft is forward of it. May GTA 6 finally surpass even Minecraft’s 400 million gross sales?
In different GTA 6 information, Bloomberg reported that Rockstar has promised its subsequent recreation gained’t take one other eight years to develop, though we don’t know what it will likely be.