How much did GTA 6 cost to make, and how long did it take?

Rockstar and Take-Two have never disclosed what GTA 6 cost. The best-sourced estimate comes from Bloomberg: more than $1 billion. Work on the idea started in 2015, full production after Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018, and the game comes out on November 19, 2026, thirteen years after GTA 5.

The budget: estimates, not figures

• Bloomberg, after visiting Rockstar North in September 2026, estimated the budget may exceed $1 billion (our summary).
• Analyst Michael Pachter put it at more than $1.5 billion in 2025. Jennifer Kolb, head of Rockstar’s publishing, rejected that number in the same Bloomberg piece but didn’t give her own.
• GamesBeat, reporting on the PC version, wrote that the budget is “rumored to exceed $2 billion” and didn’t name a source (GamesBeat).

All three are outside estimates. Rockstar has said nothing about the budget itself.

How many people made it

According to Bloomberg, Rockstar had 2,441 employees in 2018 and 4,711 in August 2026, across 12 offices. Rob Nelson told Bloomberg that most of the company now works on one game at a time (GTAVice.net).

How long it took

• 2015: the first research trip to Miami, when the project was called Project Americas and planned to cover parts of North and South America (fact).
• 2018: after Red Dead Redemption 2 came out, most of the team moved onto the game, Nelson told TroisCouleurs (fact).
• End of 2019: the core of Jason and Lucia’s story was in place, according to Bloomberg.
• February 2022: Rockstar said publicly that development was “well underway” (Gematsu).
• December 2023: Trailer 1 and the 2025 window (Rockstar Newswire).
• Two delays: first to May 26, 2026, then to November 19, 2026 (release date history).

That’s about eleven years from the first ideas and eight from full production. Fans who count from GTA 5, released in September 2013, waited thirteen years.

What engine does GTA 6 use?

Rockstar hasn’t named it officially. Its games since GTA IV run on its own engine, RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine), and Wikipedia lists GTA VI among them, citing Digital Foundry’s and IGN’s breakdowns of Trailer 1 (Wikipedia).

Has it paid for itself yet?

Not from pre-orders alone, going by the estimates. Sensor Tower put GTA 6 pre-orders at about 6.45 million worth $630 million by October 20, and that’s what players spent, before the stores take their share (pre-order numbers). Take-Two expects record net bookings of $8.0 to $8.2 billion in the fiscal year to March 2027, driven by GTA 6 (Take-Two’s forecast).