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 sweeping 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 a July 2025 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 this year, 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.”
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 , for example. Concord's initial development deal was around $200 million, according to a report by Kotaku . 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 .
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