Grand Theft Auto VI is on track to become the most expensive video game ever made, with analysts estimating its budget at well over $1 billion, possibly around $1.5 billion. This underscores how video game production, once assumed to be cheaper than Hollywood filmmaking, has grown to rival or exceed major film budgets, driven by lengthy development cycles, large specialist teams and extensive testing processes.

Rockstar Games has not disclosed official figures, but court documents from other studios illustrate the trend: Sony spent $212 million on Horizon Forbidden West and $220 million on The Last of Us: Part II, while Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War topped $700 million over its lifecycle. GTA VI, in development for nearly a decade and due in November 2026 without its online mode at launch, is expected to exceed these figures. Rockstar's confidence stems from GTA V's success, which made $800 million on its first day in 2013 and has since generated roughly $10 billion, while crowdfunded title Star Citizen has raised over $1 billion since 2011 despite still not being finished.