Rockstar Games may have spent about as much — or more — developing Grand Theft Auto VI as it cost to build the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building on the planet, says a viral comparison (1). Both land near $1.5 billion.
Analysts believe Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO), its parent company, could earn that entire sum back within days of the game going on sale November 19 — and unverified reports suggest the early sales pace is already running ahead of those projections.
Let’s take a look at how likely these viral claims are.
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How much did GTA 6 cost to make?
Rockstar and Take-Two have never disclosed a development budget for GTA VI. They never disclose budgets for any game. Every dollar figure in circulation is an estimate.
The most credible range, attributed to industry analysts and referenced in commentary around Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, puts the cost at roughly $1 billion to $2 billion (2). That would make it the most expensive video game ever produced.
The “$3 billion” and “$5 billion” figures circulating on social media come from a Reddit user, who extrapolated them from Rockstar’s financial filings, which reportedly showed around $2.1 billion in salaries (3) at the Rockstar North studio alone since full-scale production began. Important to note that’s one location’s payroll over several years, not a budget document. Even the outlets that reported the figure noted it likely overstates the actual number by conflating future and current costs. Either way, the $3 billion to $5 billion claims remain guesswork.
The viral graphic pegs GTA 6 at “$2 billion-plus” and frames it as costing more than the tower — the high end of the estimate range, not the consensus. The Burj Khalifa cost approximately $1.5 billion (4) to build between 2004 and 2010, with most sources citing $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion for the structure and slightly more once surrounding infrastructure is included. At the credible $1 billion to $2 billion estimate, GTA VI’s development cost lands in the same neighborhood — roughly a Burj Khalifa. The “cost the same” framing holds; “cost more” only works on the unverified figures.
Can GTA 6 recoup its budget that fast?
The Burj Khalifa took six years and more than 12,000 workers to build. Analysts think GTA VI could pay for itself almost immediately.
GTA V pulled in roughly $1 billion (5) within three days of its 2013 launch. That was 13 years ago. GTA V has now sold close to 230 million copies.
The Financial Times, citing video game research group DFC Intelligence, projected last year (6) that GTA VI would generate $3.2 billion in first-year revenue, with about $1 billion of that coming from pre-orders alone. The standard edition carries a $79.99 price, $10 above the previous AAA console standard. B. Riley Securities estimated that increase (7) alone could add more than $300 million in net bookings.
On those numbers, recouping the budget in days is plausible. It hasn’t happened yet. But the math and the GTA V track record make it a reasonable projection.
GTA 6 pre-order sales: what’s confirmed and what’s rumor
Pre-orders opened June 25, and the early reports are enormous if they hold up. Reports circulating online put GTA VI at 39 million pre-orders and roughly $3 billion in revenue within 24 hours. Nothing has been confirmed by Take-Two or Rockstar. Treat it as a rumor.
If the number is even close, it would run ahead of the Financial Times projection (6), which pegged first-year pre-order revenue near $1 billion. It would also mean Rockstar recouped its entire development budget in a single day off a game no one outside the studio has actually played. Buyers have committed off two trailers and a batch of screenshots, with no gameplay footage released ahead of pre-orders.
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Take-Two stock and analyst price targets
Take-Two shares traded around $239 in late June, near the upper end of a 52-week range (8) of roughly $188 to $265. The stock climbed about 5% after Rockstar confirmed June 24 that preorders would open June 25, locking in the November 19 launch after multiple prior delays.
Analysts are overwhelmingly bullish: roughly 28 buy ratings, no holds and a lone sell, a consensus price target near $281, and a Street high of $368 (8) from Bank of America, which raised its target on a more aggressive GTA Online monetization outlook. GTA VI launches as a single-player experience, with no online component confirmed at release. GTA Online is where the long-term money comes from.
In its fiscal 2026 results, reported May 21, Take-Two posted record net bookings (9) (the industry’s measure of total money spent, including in-game purchases) of $6.72 billion, up 19% year over year, and guided fiscal 2027 net bookings to $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion, a forecast built almost entirely on GTA VI. Zelnick has described GTA VI (10) as “arguably the most anticipated entertainment property of all time.”
Insiders have been selling. Executives disposed of roughly $134 million (9) in shares over three months, including sales by Zelnick and President Karl Slatoff, with no insider purchases recorded over the period. The company’s bookings guidance has also at times come in below the most optimistic analyst models. The biggest risk to the thesis is a delay or a launch that fails to meet expectations. Zelnick himself called the launch (11) “very, very exciting. And terrifying. Because the expectations are so high.”
The bottom line
GTA VI likely cost about as much to develop as the Burj Khalifa cost to build, somewhere around $1.5 billion. We’re entering a new era where virtual worlds can cost as much or more to create than real-world constructs.
If the analysts are right, Take-Two won’t need six years to recoup it. If the rumors are right, it already has.
We’ve reached out to Take-Two for comment on the development cost and the upcoming launch and will update this story if the company responds.
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Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
X (1); Gosugamers (2); TechPowerUp (3); Property Finder (4); Guinness World Records (5); Financial Times (6); GuruFocus (7); Tikr (8); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (9); Insider Monkey (10); TechRadar (11)
This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: Viral post says GTA 6 cost as much to build as the $1.5B+ Burj Khalifa — analysts say Take-Two could recoup that in days
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
