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It is not established that GTA 6 is the costliest game ever. Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have not disclosed a title-specific budget in the sources reviewed. The figures often used to rank it against Call of Duty, Star Citizen, Monopoly Go! and Genshin Impact measure different things—and some are estimates, not confirmed development costs.
Why Take-Two’s financial results do not reveal GTA 6’s budget
Take-Two’s FY2026 financial release reports company-wide results and cost categories, but does not isolate GTA 6 development spending. Those accounts cover a publisher with multiple games and business activities; assigning a portion of a company-wide total to one title would be guesswork, not a reported budget.
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GameSpot reported in May 2026 that neither Rockstar nor Take-Two had disclosed GTA 6’s budget. It relayed an estimate of up to $1.5 billion from unnamed industry analysts quoted by Business Insider. That is an attributed estimate, not a company announcement or a figure confirmed in a filing.
What the commonly cited game-cost figures measure
The table separates development spending from lifecycle costs, marketing, revenue and community funding. These are not interchangeable measures, so the figures cannot be combined into a reliable league table of the most expensive games.
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- STUNNING VISUALS — Enhanced levels of fidelity and performance with new graphics modes featuring up to 4K resolution, up to 60 frames per second, HDR options, ray tracing, improved texture quality, and more
- FASTER LOADING — Quicker access to the action as the world of Los Santos and Blaine County load in faster than ever before.
- ADAPTIVE TRIGGERS AND HAPTIC FEEDBACK — Feel every moment through the DualSense controller, from directional damage to weather effects, rough road surfaces to explosions, and more.
- TEMPEST 3D AUDIO — Hear the sounds of the world with pinpoint precision: the throttle of a stolen supercar, the rattle of neighbouring gunfire, the roar of a helicopter overhead, and more.
- Please note that although this game is Region Free or Region Unlocked and will work on all systems, this is the European version and may differ from the local version in age rating, labeling or instructions.
| Game or group | Reported figure and what it measures | Evidence and date |
|---|---|---|
| GTA 6 | Official title budget: not stated by Rockstar or Take-Two in the sources reviewed. An estimate of up to $1.5 billion concerns projected cost, not a confirmed budget. | GameSpot, relaying unnamed analysts quoted by Business Insider, May 2026; Take-Two FY2026 release. |
| Black Ops III | More than $450 million in development costs across the game’s lifecycle. | Activision creative head Patrick Kelly’s court declaration, filed December 23, 2024, as reported by Game File in 2025. |
| Modern Warfare (2019) | More than $640 million in development costs across the game’s lifecycle. | Kelly’s court declaration, as reported by Game File in 2025. |
| Black Ops Cold War | More than $700 million in development costs across the game’s lifecycle. | Kelly’s court declaration, as reported by Game File in 2025. |
| Black Ops 6 | Reported at $700 million; the cited characterization does not establish an accounting scope comparable to the lifecycle figures above. | PitchBook analyst note, Q4 2025. |
| Star Citizen and Squadron 42 | $1 billion in lifetime community funding combined—not a standalone development budget for either title. | Cloud Imperium Games announcement, June 2026. |
| Monopoly Go! | $2 billion in revenue since launch; its co-CEO said marketing and user-acquisition spending was under one quarter of that revenue. PitchBook separately characterized marketing spend as exceeding $1 billion. These are revenue and marketing claims, not development-budget disclosures. | Co-CEO Javier Ferreira, as reported by Game File, March 2024; PitchBook analyst note, Q4 2025. |
| Monopoly Go! (2024) | $2.2 billion in 2024 revenue, attributed to AppMagic—not development spending. | GameSpot, January 2025. |
| Genshin Impact | A directly verifiable, comparable development-budget figure is not established by the sources reviewed. | Estimates repeated in secondary search results could not be tied to verified original evidence or a clear accounting scope. |
Why the Call of Duty numbers are not automatically comparable to GTA 6
The Call of Duty amounts have a traceable basis: they were reported from a court declaration by Activision creative head Patrick Kelly. But they refer to development costs accumulated across each game’s lifecycle. That is a different measurement window from a single launch-budget estimate, and the declaration does not establish a matching GTA 6 figure.
PitchBook’s Q4 2025 note gives broader market characterizations: typical AAA development costs of $250 million to $600 million, a rumor that GTA 6 could approach $1 billion, and the Black Ops 6 figure listed in the table. These are analyst-reported characterizations, not standardized publisher disclosures for each title. The GTA 6 rumor and the unnamed-analyst estimate relayed by GameSpot should not be treated as independent confirmation of an official budget.
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Why Star Citizen and Monopoly Go! figures answer different questions
Cloud Imperium Games described Star Citizen and Squadron 42 as having crossed a combined lifetime community-funding milestone. Funding received over time is not the same as audited development expenditure, and combining two titles makes that figure unsuitable as a direct single-game budget comparison.
Monopoly Go!’s cited figures concern commercial performance and acquisition costs. Revenue is money earned, not money spent making a game. The marketing claims also come from different attributions: the co-CEO’s statement reported by Game File and PitchBook’s later characterization. Neither source supplies a development-budget disclosure, so those marketing amounts should not be relabeled as development costs.
Rank #3
- STUNNING VISUALS — Enhanced levels of fidelity and performance with new graphics modes featuring up to 4K resolution, up to 60 frames per second, HDR options, ray tracing, improved texture quality, and more
- FASTER LOADING — Quicker access to the action as the world of Los Santos and Blaine County load in faster than ever before.
- ADAPTIVE TRIGGERS AND HAPTIC FEEDBACK — Feel every moment through the DualSense controller, from directional damage to weather effects, rough road surfaces to explosions, and more.
- TEMPEST 3D AUDIO — Hear the sounds of the world with pinpoint precision: the throttle of a stolen supercar, the rattle of neighbouring gunfire, the roar of a helicopter overhead, and more.
- Please note that although this game is Region Free or Region Unlocked and will work on all systems, this is the international version and may differ from the local version in age rating, labeling or instructions.
Can any of these figures establish the most expensive game?
Not on a like-for-like basis. A defensible ranking would need comparable title-level accounting, the same cost categories, a defined time window, and consistent treatment of marketing and ongoing support. It would also need to distinguish one game from a bundle of titles and confirmed company disclosures from estimates or reported claims.
For GTA 6, the official budget remains undisclosed in the cited material. The available comparisons show that some other games have been associated with very large lifecycle development costs, while the most eye-catching figures for other titles refer to funding, marketing or revenue. They do not prove that GTA 6 is—or is not—the costliest game ever.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- ATEMBERAUBENDE GRAFIK: Visuelle Verbesserungen und eine hhere Leistung mit neuen Grafikmodi, die eine Auflsung bis zu 4K, bis zu 60 Bilder pro Sekunde, HDR-Optionen, Ray-Tracing, verbesserte Texturqualitt und mehr bieten
- SCHNELLERE LADEZEITEN: Rascherer Zugang zur Action, da die Welt von Los Santos und Blaine County schneller geladen wird als jemals zuvor
- 3D-RAUMKLANG: Geniee die Klangkulisse der Welt mit hchster Przision: den Motor eines gestohlenen Supersportwagens, das knatternde Gewehrfeuer um die Ecke, das Drhnen eines Helikopters ber dir und mehr
- NEUES MEN-DESIGN: Erlebe ein komplett berarbeitetes Men-Design fr verbesserte Navigation und Benutzerfreundlichkeit auf Xbox Series X|S
- ZUGANG ZU ALLEN AKTUELLEN UND FRHEREN UPDATES: Profitiere von allen Gameplay-Verbesserungen, Erweiterungen und Inhalten, die seit Verffentlichung von GTA Online hinzugefgt wurden
Rank #4
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- STUNNING VISUALS: Enhanced levels of fidelity and performance with new graphics modes featuring up to 4K resolution, up to 60 frames per second, HDR options, ray tracing, improved texture quality, and more
- FASTER LOADING: Quicker access to the action as the world of Los Santos and Blaine County load in faster than ever before
- ADAPTIVE TRIGGERS & HAPTIC FEEDBACK: Feel every moment through the DualSense controller, from directional damage to weather effects, rough road surfaces to explosions, and more
- TEMPEST 3D AUDIO: Hear the sounds of the world with pinpoint precision: the throttle of a stolen supercar, the rattle of neighboring gunfire, the roar of a helicopter overhead, and more
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