While Grand Theft Auto 6’s May 26 release has still raised plenty of questions about how much the game will end up costing, analysts are now believing that it might be the first game to end up with a $100 price tag. Speaking to The Telegraph, Ampere Analysis analyst Louise Wooldridge and Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter expressed their beliefs that the game is definitely one of the most anticipated titles of all time, and likely cost quite a bit to make.
Describing GTA 6 as being “probably the most anticipated game of all time,” Wooldridge also believes that development costs for Rockstar’s upcoming title have also hit new heights. “We can expect it to be one of the most expensive games ever made,” Wooldridge adds. Adding to this Pachter has expressed a belief that, while it may have cost quite a bit to get developed, GTA 6 will also end up making Take-Two Interactive $10 billion over its lifetime.
“I expect a $100 price point for the game,” said Pachter. “The game will be immensely profitable. It will likely generate $10 billion lifetime and another $500 million annually from GTA Online.” As for development costs, Pachter has also said that he believes that it will exceed $1.5 billion with marketing costs combined by the time the game comes out.
This is far from the first time that the subject of GTA 6 costing $100 has popped up. Pachter had first brought the topic up back in March, saying that Rockstar will likely bundle additional goodies for the new version of GTA Online to justify the price point.
“We think the company has plans to sell the game at a previously unheard of price point, and suspect that management can offer consumers an incentive to pay $100 or more per unit by rewarding them with a large amount of in-game currency to be spent in GTA Online,” said Pachter.
Epyllion analyst Matthew Ball had expressed a similar belief back in January, who also added at the time that GTA 6 featuring a higher price tag of between $80 and $100 would also give the rest of the industry permission to raise their games’ prices as well. However, Ball’s statement was shot down by Circana’s Mat Piscatella, who pointed out that games have been hitting the $100 price point without having to raise the price of the base game for quite some time now thanks to special editions and collector’s editions. Rather, Piscatella believes that Take-Two Interactive will price the game in a way to get as wide of an audience as possible.
“There’s no need to make the base price of any game $100,” posted Piscatella on social media. “Special editions, collector’s editions, gold/silver editions, etc etc do the same thing, and a high % of day 1 buyers jump on those at their elevated price points. There’s just no need.”
“You want to make the funnel as wide as possible, while also optimizing launch $,” he continued. “You don’t do this [by] making the base price of a game so high that the funnel narrows. It just makes no sense. At all.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on May 26, 2026. There is currently no word of a PC release.
