GTA 6's 'insane' production calculated as Rockstar attempts to release the biggest game of all time
It's been 13 years since Rockstar Games delivered Grand Theft Auto V, but thanks to a little help from its GTA Online contingent, this gaming giant is still making bank in 2026. In 2025's financial year alone, it's said that the GTA franchise made Take-Two Interactive a jaw-dropping $710 million.
With GTA V's lifetime sales topping 225 million and making it the third best-selling video game of all time, we imagine a hefty chunk of that comes from 2013's crime caper. Not everything lasts forever, but away from questions about what will happen to GTA Online when GTA 6 comes along, the entire gaming industry is bracing for a veritable tsunami when it releases on November 19.
2026 is a big year for releases like Resident Evil: Requiem, Marvel's Wolverine, and Call of Duty's rumored Modern Warfare 4, but GTA 6 is so big that it's been reported that other developers have been actively moving their releases as far away from it as they can. With fears that shifting GTA 6's release date (again) could harm the gaming industry, it's hard to fathom just how important the title is.
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Even though Rockstar and Take-Two are destined to make a fortune from GTA 6 as it's pitched as the biggest video game of all time, that obviously comes with a hefty price tag.
Now, internet sleuths have dived deep into Rockstar Games' financials and think they've come up with the magic number for what the gaming giant has really spent on the upcoming automotive adventure.
What is the rumored GTA 6 budget?
As reported by GamesRadar, YouTuber Saukko505 has created an investigative (if a little speculatory) video trying to figure out GTA 6's total budget. Using publicly available financials from the UK Government website, they've crunched the numbers on salary spend between 2019 and now – also covering the arms not based in the United Kingdom. Although the OP admits they're by no means an accountant and we should take their maths with a pinch of salt, they think Rockstar has splashed somewhere between $3 billion and $5 billion on GTA 6.
It's important to note that this budgeting doesn't take into account work on the likes of the next-gen Red Dead Redemption, the "Expanded & Enhanced" GTA V, and GTA Online, meaning Rockstar's entire spend wasn't focused on GTA 6.
Considering GTA V is still the most profitable entertainment product of all time and is said to have made somewhere around $10 billion, spending half of that again on the next game seems like one hell of a gamble.
Still, the longevity of GTA V and the fact that we've been obsessed with every single whiff of GTA 6 news since those massive leaks turned out to be true in 2022, it's likely a gamble that's going to pay off.
Let's also remember that there's still no official word on what the game will cost, and if those whispers of a $100 GTA 6 price tag come true, that's one way to claw back some of that astronomical spend.
While Cloud Imperium Games’ Star Citizen is widely considered the most expensive game of all time, thanks to a reported spend of over $700 million, even GTA 6's conservative estimates could obliterate this.
We'll never know exactly what GTA 6 will cost to make, although let's remember that GTA V was said to cost $265 million back in 2013, which made it the most expensive game ever made at the time. Even though we know things have gotten a lot more expensive since then, the idea that GTA 6 will cost a minimum of 10 times more is truly wild to even consider.