How Does GTA 6's Budget Compare to the 5 Most Expensive Games Ever Made?

We all know that when Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out, it will instantly be one of the best-selling games of all time. The hype for this game is unprecedented and has been brewing for years.

GTA 5 came out 11 years ago, and it was an instant success. It has sold 200 million copies, making it the second best-selling game of all time (only behind the juggernaut that is Minecraft), and has made over $8.5 billion in revenue. So, of course, the entire world is expecting bigger and better things for its sequel.

And it looks like developer Rocksteady Games plans to deliver.

According to a Rocksteady Games leak, the total budget of GTA 6 will be roughly $2 billion. No, I did not mistype a million. B for a billion. It’s important to note, however, that the budget encompasses everything: the creation of the base game, DLC, updates, marketing, etc. Even still, that’s an unbelievable amount of money. But if GTA 6 is just as much a raging success as its predecessor, the risk will definitely be worth the reward.

And that brings up an interesting question: how does GTA 6’s budget compare to the other most expensive games ever made? Well, in order to see how it stacks up to the competition, I present to you the 5 most expensive games ever developed.

P.S. We’ll only be looking at game budgets that have been confirmed. There are a lot of rumors and speculation about other games’ budgets, but those were never verified (Red Dead Redemption 2, Concord, etc.). That can be a separate list later 👀

5 Most Expensive Games Ever Developed

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 3

1. Cyberpunk 2077

3. Monopoly Go!

2. Star Citizen

1. Genshin Impact

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 - $385 Million

In 2023, developer Insomniac Games had a giant leak, and when I say giant I mean GIANT. Polygon.com reported that the leak was 1.67 terabytes and contained 1.3 million files. It’s very unfortunate for Insomniac Games, but it did allow outsiders like us to get a peek at some of the technical/business aspects of gaming that we would never see. For example, a lot of the budgets for their games, including for their upcoming titles.

And one of those titles is Marvel’s Spider-Man 3. According to the leak, Marvel’s Spider-Man 3’s budget is $385 million. This is a $70 million increase compared to Spider-Man 2’s budget. And who knows? Spider-Man 4 might hit the $400 million mark.

4. Cyberpunk 2077 - $441 Million

Cyberpunk 2077 was a very ambitious game, even for revered developers CD Projekt Red, and the budget reflects that. In total, the budget of Cyberpunk 2077 was around $440 million, and what’s interesting is that, unlike other games, we can see exactly where that money was allocated.

The budget for the base game was around $316 million. That right there already makes it one of the most expensive games ever made, but it didn’t end there.

Cyberpunk 2077 was riddled with bugs at launch, and a lot of features that were promised were missing. Fixing all of that and making sure the game was updated to make it as good as possible wasn’t cheap. On top of that, the game also had a DLC expansion. In total, the post-launch budget was around $125 million, according to IGN. Put those 2 numbers together, and you get approximately $441 million.

3. Monopoly Go! - $500 Million

Maybe it’s because I’m not too into mobile gaming, but I was completely blindsided when I found out that Monopoly Go! was the third most expensive game ever made, with a budget of $500 million. I know that Monopoly is iconic, but to me, it seems like a huge risk to put that much money into a Monopoly mobile game. Shows how much I know because the story gets even crazier.

That $500 million isn’t even including the development cost. No, that $500 million is purely on marketing alone. That’s right, Monopoly Go! had a higher budget for marketing than the entire budget for Cyberpunk 2077 and Marvel’s Spider-Man 3. But the most wild part is that it paid off. The CEO confirmed that in the first 10 months, the game garnered $2 billion in revenue. I will never doubt Mr. Monopoly ever again.

2. Star Citizen - $700 Million

Oh, Star Citizen. I was hearing about the development of this game when I was still in high school. One high school graduation, one college graduation, and one pandemic later, I’m still hearing news about the development of this game. According to IGN, Star Citizen’s budget officially surpassed the $700 million mark earlier this year.

Although the game has been in development for over a decade, it’s not like it’s unaccessible or unplayable. You can go ahead and play the Alpha build of it right now. And a lot of people seem to enjoy it which, good for them, I say. However, it remains to be seen when it will officially be released and what the total budget will be when that day comes.

1. Genshin Impact - $700 Million

It takes a lot of money to create a game, but as seen with Cyberpunk 2077, it also takes a lot of money to update it post-launch. But what happens when it’s a live-service game that has to continuously add new content and updates? Well, that means that the costs keep on coming. And that’s what’s happening with Genshin Impact.

It’s been reported that the cost of just making Genshin Impact was $100 million. But that was just a drop in the bucket. miHoYo President Cai Hayou stated that it costs around $200 million a year to keep the new content coming.

Although that might seem like a lot of money (because it is), it’s nothing compared to the revenue they’re bringing in. Earlier this month, it was announced that Genshin Impact reached $5 billion in revenue in China. With the game still going strong, it’ll be interesting to see what its total revenue will be when it’s all said and done.

Conclusion

What’s interesting to note is that if you combine the budgets of Star Citizen, Genshin Impact, and Monopoly Go!, it falls short of GTA 6’s budget by $100 million. I mean, really think about that. The 3 most expensive games ever released and their budgets still don’t touch the budget of GTA 6.

If that’s not a testament to the high expectations put on the shoulders of the game, I don’t know what is. Only time will tell if it will reach those expectations. Who am I kidding? It definitely will.

More in Gaming:

1. 5 Console-Level Games That You Can Play on Your iPhone Right Now

1. 5 Gaming Franchises That Need to Return
2. Top 10 Greatest Games of All Time According to the Hackernoon Team

Feature image source