GTA 6 set to be the most expensive video game we've ever seen

Rockstar Games’ upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI is set to be the most expensive video game ever created, if its hefty rumoured budget is proven accurate.

Given that Grand Theft Auto fans have been waiting for GTA VI for over a decade, you can understand why the hype is so palpable - especially when you look at how commercially successful GTA V was. Within hours of dropping GTA VI’s first trailer, the game was breaking records. I’m imagining that’s something that’s only going to continue in terms of sales by the time launch day rolls around. We don’t, of course, yet know when that launch day is. GTA VI has the vague release window of 2025. It was originally assumed to drop in the first three months of the year but following a revision of Take-Two Interactive’s sales expectations, April or beyond is now looking more likely.

You’ll have already seen it, but there’s no harm in watching once more. Dive into the GTA VI trailer below.

Already, the trailer alone has left us hyped but GTA VI’s rumoured budget could also reflect just what a whopper of an experience we’re in for. For quite some time now, the figure of $2 billion has been floated around in relation to GTA VI’s budget by analysts. While I encourage you to take this information with a pinch of salt, it’s interesting to compare it to other major projects.

As pointed out by Reddit user unproductive_nerd, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III reportedly cost around $1 billion, while Red Dead Redemption 2 came in at $540 million, followed by Cyberpunk 2077 at $436 billion. If you add those three together, you end up with a little under $2 billion, almost matching GTA VI’s rumoured budget.

Likewise, unproductive_nerd also compared it to the five most expensive movies, including the likes of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which also in total all equated to around $2 billion. We should know more about GTA VI’s budget further down the line. It’s believed that $2 billion worth of funding was set aside for the game. That’s not to say that Rockstar ended up spending that much. Only time will tell, but I don’t think it’s going to surprise anyone when GTA VI’s budget is finally revealed.