A public filing from the UK Companies House has revealed that Rockstar North spent roughly $2.1 billion on wages alone between 2019 and 2025, and because marketing for ‘Grand Theft Auto 6‘ has not even started yet fans are now speculating that the total budget for the game could land somewhere around $3 billion. That would make it the most expensive video game ever made by a wide margin.
The previous rumor floating around was that ‘Grand Theft Auto 6‘ had a $2 billion budget, and a lot of people dismissed that number as exaggerated. But the Companies House data only covers wages at Rockstar North, which is the lead studio on the game, and does not include marketing or any of the other costs that go into shipping a title this size. The $2 billion figure might have actually been low.
Rockstar North’s Wage Bill Alone Dwarfs The Biggest Game Budgets In History
The $2.1 billion wage figure from the UK filing is staggering when you put it next to what other big-budget games have cost. ‘Red Dead Redemption 2‘ and ‘Cyberpunk 2077‘ are usually cited as the most expensive games ever made, and both came in somewhere between $300 million and $600 million, and that includes marketing. Rockstar North spent more than three times that on salaries before a single ad had run for ‘Grand Theft Auto 6.’
But Rockstar can afford to spend like that because ‘Grand Theft Auto 5‘ has printed money for over a decade. A Take-Two Interactive earnings call earlier this year confirmed the game has sold 225 million copies and likely pulled in more than $8 billion in lifetime revenue. It made $1 billion in its first three days back in 2013.
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If ‘Grand Theft Auto 6‘ does even half of what its predecessor did then a $3 billion budget pays for itself, and it is not hard to see why Rockstar felt comfortable spending at that level.
Fans Are Speculating How Much ‘GTA 6’ Will Actually Cost At Launch
If the game really did cost $3 billion to make, then fans want to know what that means for the price tag. Some industry analysts have predicted that ‘Grand Theft Auto 6‘ could retail for over $100, which would be a first for a major release, and a lot of people are not happy about that possibility.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick added fuel to the speculation recently when he said that games that cost “70 or 80 bucks” should not have in-game ads. People read that as a hint about ‘Grand Theft Auto 6‘ pricing, but the quote was pulled from a broader conversation, and Zelnick was not directly talking about his own game.
Nobody knows the price yet. Rockstar has not said anything, and Take-Two has not confirmed a number. What Zelnick did confirm is that marketing for ‘Grand Theft Auto 6‘ will begin in the summer, which lines up with the November release window that the game has been targeting after two delays.
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The last new ‘Grand Theft Auto‘ game came out in 2013. Thirteen years of waiting and a $3 billion budget, and still no marketing campaign yet. Rockstar is either supremely confident or running on a timeline that got away from them, and fans will not know which one it is until November.
