Video game budgets have increased astronomically over the years. What started as small side projects for the entertainment industry has burgeoned into a multibillion-dollar venture, with a lot of games costing tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars to create. For major games, these costs include major talent, large teams, and high marketing costs.
With Cyberpunk 2077’s impending release after nearly a decade of development and a rumored budget of over $100 million, and Halo Infinite’s budget ballooning to nine figures as well, game budgets are continuing to rise, and there have been some ridiculously high game budgets over the course of gaming’s history.
10 Grand Theft Auto V
The Grand Theft Auto series is notorious for its over-the-top presentation and high production values, and the costs to make each game in the series are no joke. Released in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V cost over $260 million to develop, and with a highly detailed world and continuous support provided for GTA Online over time, and new editions coming to next-generation consoles, production costs are only increasing. However, Rockstar Games and Take-Two aren’t sweating the costs, as GTA V has brought in more than $6 billion and sold more than 135 million copies.
9 Star Citizen
Star Citizen is among the most famous and successful crowdfunding campaigns, using the money gathered to become one of the most expensive games of all time. Since the campaign's launch, it has raised more than $300 million from its fans and additional external sources, and the developers continue to release new content and features to fulfill their ongoing crowdfunding goals.
Even though the game is not officially completed and will likely remain in development for the foreseeable future, it continues to both cost and make lots of money, and with the continued crowdfunding campaign, it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon.
8 Destiny
As Bungie’s first major game after the conclusion of the original Halo trilogy and its subsequent independence from exclusivity to Xbox, Destiny saw the studio fully invest in creating a new world and supporting it well after launch. The original contract Bungie signed with Activision budgeted $500 million for the series, and, while the original didn’t ultimately cost that much, it still ran up its expenses to nearly $140 million. However, the original grossed nearly $1 billion, and with Destiny 2 and Bungie’s separation from Activision, the franchise is continuing to pay for itself.
7 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The Call of Duty franchise is virtually synonymous with the high-budget shooter that has become par for the course for triple-A gaming. Modern Warfare 2, the direct sequel to one of the most commercially and critically successful shooters of all time, had the license to be as big and bold as it wanted. It accomplished that with big set pieces, high production values, and a massive marketing budget that ballooned to nearly $200 million. However, within its first day on the market, it recouped its entire $250 million budget and more, and it has continued to sell millions of copies well after launch and retained a significant multiplayer community.
6 Star Wars: The Old Republic
Though BioWare is widely known for its Mass Effect series, its first foray into the MMO landscape garnered the highest budget. Continuing the Knights of the Old Republic series, Star Wars: The Old Republic was set in an expansive world that has been estimated to have cost nearly $200 million to create and inevitably more to maintain. Luckily for BioWare and EA, a big launch and a modest sustained player base has allowed SWToR to gross over $1 billion in its lifetime of nearly a decade so far.
5 Red Dead Redemption
While the Grand Theft Auto series might have the highest budget of all its games, Rockstar doesn’t slouch on anything it releases, and its adventures in the Wild West, including both Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, prove that Rockstar spares no expense in game development. Their widely documented attention to detail and expansive world cost nearly $100 million the first time around, and the sequel undoubtedly upped the ante significantly. As with Grand Theft Auto V, though, both made their investments back quickly, including Red Dead Redemption 2’s revenue of more than $700 million on its first day.
4 The Last of Us Part II
After the success of the Uncharted series and the original The Last of Us, developer Naughty Dog had little in the way of budget restrictions when it came to The Last of Us Part II, its biggest game and one of the PlayStation 4’s most-anticipated exclusives. Announced in 2016, Part II was in development for nearly five years and ran up an estimated cost of more than $100 million. As a flagship exclusive on the PlayStation 4, though, it did not lag in sales and became one of the console's best-selling exclusives, likely recouping its overall investment in just weeks after launch.
3 Tomb Raider
As the comeback for one of gaming’s most recognizable heroes, the new Tomb Raider series received Square Enix’s full backing for each of its three entries. The 2013 reboot had an overall budget of almost $100 million, which it made back within a year.
The budget for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the 2018 conclusion to the trilogy, ballooned to an estimated $135 million. Sales for the franchise decreased with each title, with estimated units sold of 11 million for the 2013 entry, 7 million for 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, and over 4 million for Shadow.
2 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Notorious for its independence, CD Projekt Red is not afraid to put large amounts of time and money into its projects, and 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt exemplifies this notion. The Polish company revealed that the third entry in its fantasy saga cost approximately $81 million to develop over the course of more than three years. For CDPR, though, this was a worthwhile investment, as the novel-based title has sold more than 50 million units, allowing the company to invest even more into Cyberpunk 2077.
1 Final Fantasy VII
One of the most important games on the first PlayStation and one of the quintessential JRPGs of all time, Final Fantasy VII did not come out of nowhere when it first launched. Its initial budget consisted of approximately $45 million, which equates to more than $70 million when accounting for inflation. When accounting for a marketing budget that nearly doubled its development budget, Final Fantasy VII was incredibly expensive. Its multi-part remake is also rumored to have a budget in the hundreds of millions across its parts, seen in its incredible level of detail. As one of the most talked-about games of all-time, it has made back its investment many times over, with more than 12 million units of the original sold and more than 5 million units sold of the 2020 remake.