The 12 most expensive video games in history.

It's no secret to anyone: doing games It requires time, effort, and, of course, money. The greater the scope and reach desired for the product, the greater the investments in development, marketing, and distribution. But what are the most expensive games ever produced, and approximately how much did they cost? The answer isn't simple, and you'll soon understand why.

After all, how much does it cost to make a game?

When we talk about the estimated investment for the production of a digital gameThere is a vast range of costs that must be considered. First, it is necessary to understand what the project will require in terms of infrastructure, gameplay experience, and skilled labor.

Games from major publishers, such as PlayStation ou UbisoftThey like to focus their efforts on scenes with photorealistic animations — usually produced under cinematic direction that requires motion capture, facial mapping, and high-quality modeling. Therefore, a considerable portion of the budget ends up being allocated to hiring these professionals.

What a lot of people don't know, however, is that the biggest costs are associated with marketing and outreach campaigns in general. for the called AAA (budgets of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars), these costs can represent up to 70% of the total cost by the time the game is in the hands of the public.

Concord (US$ 200 million)

The undertaking of Sony and the former CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan, to dive headfirst into the world of Gas (games as a service(Games as a Service) not only went wrong, but also generated millions in losses for the company. Several games live service Many of the announced games never even saw the light of day, but one game in particular not only got released, but also became one of the biggest recent failures in the industry and a lesson in project and expectation management.

The official figures were never released, but according to a report by Kotakuthe initial budget of Concord It revolved around 200 million dollarsThe publication also states that the final amount may have been much higher, which makes the whole story even more tragic.

According to industry analysts, Concord sold only 25 thousand copies in the week of launch. The result was inevitable: the Firewalk studios It was shut down by Sony in September 2024, leaving 160 developers unemployed and showing that chasing trends is not always a guarantee of success.

The Last Of Us Part II ($220 million)

The Last Of Us Part II raises the bar of quality previously established by the critical and public success of Uncharted 4, becoming one of the most praised and controversial prestige games of recent years. Besides having the difficult task of living up to the excellent first entry in the franchise, originally released in 2013, the sequel also aimed for the stars: polishing and expanding the gameplay experience of the narrative and, of course, improving the motion capture technology and artificial intelligence of the enemies.

Thanks to official documents from Sony, sent to the case FTC v. Microsoft And revealed by mistake, we were able to discover that, over 6 years and with 200 developers involved, the post-apocalyptic game cost the owner of... Playstation a value of 220 million dollars — excluding marketing expenses. An understandable number when you experience the end result firsthand.

Marathon (US$ 250 million)

Since its acquisition by Sony in 2022, the developer's journey Bungie It has been full of obstacles. The creator of Halo has faced numerous waves of layoffs since 2023 and has failed to achieve positive financial results with Destiny 2, which most recently had its activities shut down in an announcement that took its entire audience by surprise.

Despite this, Sony remained very confident in the success of Marathonmainly due to Bungie's familiarity with the genre. shooter and the creation of a strong visual identity for the new title. According to the senior contributor of Forbes, Paul Tassithe development of extraction shooter it cost around 250 million dollars to the company, excluding costs related to game maintenance and post-launch content.

The game, however, did not meet the expectations of the Japanese company, which reported a loss of 765 million dollars against the recipe of 55 million, generated by sales of 1,2 million copies So far, so far. The question remains: will Bungie be able to reverse this streak of bad luck? We'll have to wait and see how this chapter unfolds.

Grand Theft Auto V ($265 million)

GTA V It was released in 2013 and continues to be, even in 2026, one of the best-selling games year after year. This is due to many reasons, but mainly to the recurring investment that... Rockstar Games does in its ongoing service, Grand Theft Auto Online.

When the game was released in 2013, it is estimated that the cost to produce the second best-selling game of all time would have been approximately 140 million dollarsBut, according to the journalist Marty McLaughlin, from the newspaper The Scotsman, the value The total, which includes development time and marketing efforts, exceeded 265 million of dollars.

That being said, it's easy to understand how so much money was invested in just one product: Grand Theft Auto V has already made more than 10 billions of dollars in 13 years of existence, reaching the impressive mark of 230 million copies sold across three different console generations. Its resounding success allowed the developer to put all its efforts into the 8 years of development of Red Dead Redemption 2, another giant that also appears on lists of the most expensive games ever produced.

Marvel's Spider-Man 3 (US$ 385 million)

Marvel's Spider-Man 3 It hasn't even been released yet — aiming for a release date sometime in 2028 — but we already know it's one of the most expensive games in the industry due to the hacker attack suffered by its developer in December 2023. Approximately 1,6 TB Confidential company files were exposed, along with a lot of information about the next game. Peter Parker.

While the second game in the franchise had a total cost of 315 million dollars, Sony e Insomniac Games they calculate a value of 385 million dollars in the production of the third title and a return of at least 75% of the investment if they sell 14,5 million copies. However, the value of budget It is not guaranteed and may increase during the game's development period.

The budget of Spider-Man 3 This represents an increase of approximately 22% compared to the previous project and raises further concerns in the industry. AAA Regarding the exorbitant production costs and sales and revenue targets that are increasingly far from reality, even when successes like the Spider-Man games are treated as guaranteed.

Battlefield 6 (US$400 million)

It was a consensus among fans of Battlefield that the series had reached a level of fatigue between releases of Battlefield V e Battlefield 2042The mixed reviews for both titles, mainly focused on changes to classic game modes and lack of long-term support, raised concerns at the developer. DICE, who sought to circumvent public displeasure by returning to his roots with Battlefield 6.

Under the leadership of Wins Zampella, co-creator of Call of Duty and founder of Respawn Entertainment —responsible for Titanfall e Apex Legends —, the collective Battlefield Studios He used the acclaimed third and fourth titles in the franchise as inspiration for the direction of the sixth game and needed to invest 400 million dollars during its 4 years of development.

The public's reaction was immediate: 7 million copies Tickets sold out in just three days, making it the most successful debut in the franchise's history, with critics praising the return of characteristic elements of the series, such as widespread chaos and a... gameplay quite diverse.

Cyberpunk 2077 (US$ 440 million)

The commercial and artistic success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt It was so significant that it ended up changing the history of forever. CD Project RedWith a Game of the Year award in hand and more than 60 million copies With the sales of their last game, the Polish developer and publisher didn't have to think twice about how much they would need to spend on their next project: Cyberpunk 2077However, they had no idea that, in a few years, they would experience one of the biggest embarrassments in terms of game launches in history.

You probably already know the story: the open-world game, released in December 2020, came out with an absurd number of bugs and problems that hampered the user experience. Because of this, the game received very low scores on aggregators such as Metacritic e Opencritic — in addition to being removed from PlayStation Store for a few months.

The fiasco, however, seems to be a thing of the past. Patches constants, in addition to a DLC And the success of its anime adaptation led Cyberpunk 2077 to undergo a... reassessment at your reception And today, the cyberfuturistic game is widely acclaimed for its narrative. gameplay and an immersive open world. For that to happen, 440 million dollars That much was spent on producing the title, making it one of the most expensive games ever made.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War ($700 million)

22 games from the main franchise, more than 500 million copies sold and an estimated revenue of 31 billions of dollars on 2025. O professional status de Call of Duty As one of the most lucrative franchises in entertainment history, it has enabled massive investment from the publisher. Activision from the three main developers of the franchise: Infinity Ward, Treyarch e Sledgehammer Games In other words, a lot of money is needed to keep three places running with hundreds of people and cutting-edge technology.

And with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War It wouldn't be any different. Still, the cost figures are still surprising. Due to a lawsuit filed against Activision in 2024, the creative director of Call of Duty, Patrick kelly, revealed in a document that the 17th game in the series cost an impressive 700 million dollars throughout its active development cycle, causing shooter In 2020, it became the most expensive game in the franchise to date.

This cost doesn't seem to bother the publisher, which continues to release games in the franchise annually and achieve sales figures in the millions. However, changes may be on the way, given the lower-than-expected numbers of... Black Ops 7 They are forcing Activision to tinker with a successful formula that, for years, seems to have stagnated.

Star Citizen ($900 million)

Star Citizen It was announced to the world 13 years ago along with a successful campaign in KickstarterMore than was raised. 2 million dollars only on the popular website of through crowdfunding And since then, the contributions haven't stopped — nor has the scope of the project.

O MMORPG The space project has become so ambitious that, even after its announcement in 2012, it is still in the alpha stage of development with only a launch window between 2027 and 2028. But that doesn't mean the delay of more than a decade has affected contributions, as Star Citizen currently accumulates more than... 900 million dollars in financing.

According to the developer Cloud Imperium GamesPost-Kickstarter funding comes from monetizations. in-gameSales of the game in early access and private funding. It's impressive that, even far from a concrete launch, the community remains so active and engaged in the development of the project, which will very soon reach the impressive mark of 1 billion dollars.

Genshin Impact (US$ 900 million)

Amid the COVID pandemic, multiplayer games and/or games with strong social appeal, such as Among Us e Animal Crossing: New HorizonsThey became a form of escapism that the world's population needed during the period of lockdown. the launch of Genshin Impact In that year, 2020, it not only took advantage of social isolation and the popularity of games of that genre, but also became a success that endures to this day.

And to maintain this success, the developer myHoYo spends at least 200 million dollars per year in content creation and game maintenance. Adding all subsequent years since its debut to the development cost of 100 millionuntil 2025, the budget of genshin already exceeds more than 900 million dollars.

If miHoYo's plans remain the same over the next 5 years, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Chinese RPG to become one of the few games to reach the milestone of 2 bilhões in expenses. But, depending on the community and the record profit of 6,3 bilhões In 2024, we may see these numbers very soon.

Monopoly Go! (US$ 1 billion)

You read that right! One of the most expensive games in history is nothing more than a mobile game de MonopolyThe developer Scopely It took 7 years and 70 million dollars to develop the portable version of the famous board game, but it was in marketing that the costs reached stratospheric levels: since 2025, more than [amount missing] has been spent. 1 billion of dollars just in the game's promotion — and for comparison, this value represents only 10-15% of what a title would cost. AAA It usually spends money on advertising.

However, all these expenses were not in vain. Since its launch in 2023, the game has generated impressive... 6 billions of dollars in revenue, thus becoming the fastest mobile game to reach that milestone. The recipe for this success? According to the co-CEO of Scopely, Javier FerreiraThe focus was on the social aspect of the game and its networking opportunities. And it seems the strategy is working, considering that more than 10 million people are playing. Monopoly Go! daily.

Grand Theft Auto VI (US$ 1.5 billion)

The pre-release period for a game in the series. Grand Theft Auto It's always surrounded by a lot of buzz. Theories about the story, the actors involved, and what content will be present in the final version of the title occupy discussions in forums around the world. But, for GTA VIHowever, one specific topic has been generating far more engagement than the game's content itself: its budget.

Strauss ZelnickCEO of Take-TwoHe has already made it clear: "it was expensive." But how expensive are we talking about here? Industry analysts estimate exorbitant prices. 1,5 billion dollars have been spent on the game so far, with some suggesting that this number may have exceeded 2 bilhõesThese calculations are not just shots in the dark, since information about the number of developers, salaries, and other expenses of the company is crucial. Rockstar GAMES They are public and can be easily found on the government's website. United Kingdom.

Not surprisingly, the discussion surrounding the final price of the most anticipated game of 2026 has been a source of concern among gamers. After all, how will they recoup the costs of what is likely to be the most expensive entertainment product in history? Depending on the franchise's history, this shouldn't be an obstacle, as everything indicates that the records of... Grand Theft Auto VI They will not be limited to expenses alone.

And you, did you ever imagine that developing a game would be so expensive? Tell us in the comments!

See also:

Video game market hits record high in 2025

Best portable PC and video game consoles to buy now

Sources: Mehza, IGN, GamingBolt, Insiders Gaming, Forbes, Kotaku, GamesRadar, Video Games Chronicles

reviewed by Tiago Rodrigues in 27 / 05 / 2026