GTA 6 cost $2 billion and took 12 years to build—but the real story is all leaks, lawsuits, and an arrest

GTA VI is a 12-year, billion-dollar soap opera. In fact, Rockstar Games’ latest creation is officially the most expensive video game ever made, with reports pegging its cost between $1 and $2 billion. To put that in perspective, even the conservative figure is higher than the combined budgets of Avatar, Avengers, and Star Wars. Yes, all three. Together. It’s been in the works since 2014. The scale is so massive that even Monopoly Go’s near-billion-dollar price tag looks like loose change.

The saga began after GTA V’s 2013 success, but Rockstar took time. Pre-production dragged for three years. Actual development kicked off in 2018—then came COVID, remote work chaos, and a mountain of “creative perfectionism.” That means... delays, delays, and more delays.

Then came the leaks. In 2022, a hacker known as teapotuberhacker dropped 90 unfinished GTA VI clips online, breaking the internet and several Rockstar NDAs. The studio went into legal overdrive, lawsuits flew, and yes—the hacker got arrested. You would think that’d be the end of it, but 2025 brought another leak, another viral meltdown, and another cleanup job for Rockstar’s lawyers.

By now, fans have been waiting so long they’ve aged out of their consoles. The memes say it all—“Before GTA 6” became an online era marker. Weddings, pandemics, Taylor Swift albums—everything happened before GTA 6.

With this kind of budget, Rockstar promises to build an empire. GTA VI promises a vast new world—Leonida, inspired by Florida—complete with dual protagonists: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, the franchise’s first female lead.

Rockstar swears the billion-dollar, 12-year wait will be worth it. Every palm tree shadow, every police chase, every satirical billboard has been crafted to perfection. Meanwhile, fans joke they’ll need retirement savings to buy the deluxe edition.