Grand Theft Auto 6 was set to be the biggest game of 2025, until it was delayed to 2026. There is some speculation about what caused the delay, with the most likely reason being that the game simply isn’t finished yet.
Publisher Rockstar Games on Tuesday dropped a ton of info about the game, from the characters to the settings, leaving two big questions about GTA 6: What does the gameplay look like, and how much will it cost?
The first answer will be revealed closer to the game’s release and will likely resemble the GTA formula we’ve seen for the past several games. The second answer, however, is a big unknown and could change right up until the game’s release.
GTA 6’s price has been a topic of debate since it was officially announced back in 2022. Why? Because any new GTA game is guaranteed to sell millions of copies within a matter of days, and the budget for a GTA game is likely to be higher than any other game in history. It’s for this reason that GTA 6 could be the most expensive game to date, but by how much?
To start, it is now very unlikely that GTA 6 will cost $70, which is the typical price for AAA games. Industry analysts always suspected the new GTA game would be the first game to make the jump to $80, and it would make sense considering the rumored budget for the game. Rockstar Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pricing of the game.
GTA 6 could have a budget ranging between $1 billion to $2 billion, per a report from Insider Gaming. This would make GTA 6 the most expensive game to ever be made. Development of the game likely started after the release of GTA 5 in 2013 and was ramped up following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. A game that has been in development as long as GTA 6, likely including a new GTA Online and backed by a big budget for voice acting and music licensing, would cost a lot to warrant an $80 price.
However, it was Nintendo who made that first move to bump up the cost of video games with the upcoming Mario Kart World for the Nintendo Switch 2. The latest kart-racing game will retail for $80, with Nintendo not yet providing a reason why. Still, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks $80 is the new $70 for video games, saying GTA 6 could go even higher.
«I suspect they will charge $100, and give people $100 of in-game currency in GTA Online,» Pachter said in an email. «Realistically, they can offer ONLY a collector’s edition for the first year and can charge whatever they wish. It’s highly likely that they will require a GTA Online account to play GTA 6, and that the two experiences will be integrated, so giving each of the first 35 (to) 50 million players $100 of currency will drive a ton of engagement in GTA Online and should grow that game’s revenues over time.»
GTA Online has been a big moneymaker for Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive. Even though GTA 5 was released in 2013 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, it has since been ported over to newer consoles and to PC. As of 2024, the game had sold more than 200 million copies across all platforms, earning Take-Two Interactive over $8 billion.
Rockstar Games could fool everyone and keep GTA 6 at $70 and sell millions within days. Back in 2013, GTA 5 made over $1 billion in just the first three days it was on the market. However, the most likely price tag for the new GTA 6 will be at least $80 by itself or $100 with some digital freebies that would carry a label of some sort of special edition.
