Bigger budgets do not buy longer stories. Black Ops Cold War cost more than $150M per campaign hour, while Red Dead Redemption 2 cost about $4–14M per hour across 50 hours, and completionists get up to 196 hours.
Back to the trend of the day: The biggest video game in years shows its final trailer before release
Poly Rating · from the trend of the day
Most Expensive Video Games Ever Made (2026 List)
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's court-confirmed $700 million produced a campaign of about six hours, while Red Dead Redemption 2's much smaller estimated budget gives players about 50 hours.
- No. 1: Star Citizen / Squadron 42
- 10 places
- 8 AIs
01Final list
8 AIs each built their own list of ten independently. Here is one result that is easy to check: every place has a reason, a source, and the list of AIs that included it.
A bright badge means this AI put the entry on its list. A dim badge means it did not.
- 1
Star Citizen / Squadron 42
$954.6M spent through 2024, according to the company's own accounts (about $1.12B in 2025 dollars). After 12+ years it is still unfinished, so there are no story hours to divide by.
Included it: Claude, Gemini, Kimi, DeepSeek, MiMo. Did not include: ChatGPT, Meta, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 1 · Gemini: 1 · Kimi: 2 · DeepSeek: 2 · MiMo: 2
What each AI noted 5
- Claudeplace 1
About $1.12B in 2025 dollars, raised mostly from backers, with no finished story to divide by.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 1
With over $850 million invested without a final commercial launch, its anticipated 30-hour single-player campaign Squadron 42 represents an unprecedented $28.3 million per story hour.
Source ↗ - Kimiplace 2
$954.6M spent, over $1B raised from players — and after 12+ years there is still no main story to divide it by.
- DeepSeekplace 2
Star Citizen has raised over $1 billion from players since 2012 and still has no release date — its budget comes from ship sales, not a publisher, making it a unique case in game financing.
- MiMoplace 2
$1,004,888,971 raised from 6.5 million backers — and the game is still an unfinished alpha fourteen years after Kickstarter.
5 of 8 - 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
$700M+ confirmed in a court filing (more than $911M in today's money) for a campaign of about 6 hours. That is more than $150M per story hour, though most of the budget went to multiplayer.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Kimi, DeepSeek, MiMo. Did not include: Meta, Gemini, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 4 · ChatGPT: 1 · Kimi: 5 · DeepSeek: 3 · MiMo: 4
What each AI noted 5
- Claudeplace 4
$871M for a campaign most outlets put at 6–8 hours, which makes it the priciest hour in the table.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 1
Its reported lifecycle development spending exceeds $700 million for a game with a roughly six-hour campaign.
Source ↗ - Kimiplace 5
$700M over its lifecycle — the largest budget ever confirmed on paper — bought a 5.5-hour campaign: ≈$158M per story hour in today's money.
- DeepSeekplace 3
Court documents revealed Black Ops Cold War cost over $700 million across its lifecycle — the highest development cost ever reported by a publisher — yet its main story takes only about 6 hours to beat.
Source ↗ - MiMoplace 4
The most expensive game with a confirmed exact budget — $700 million, and it is a campaign you can finish in an evening.
Source ↗
5 of 8 - 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
$640M+ confirmed in the same court filing, more than $843M in today's money, for a 6-hour story: about $140M per hour.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Kimi, MiMo. Did not include: Meta, Gemini, DeepSeek, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 5 · ChatGPT: 2 · Kimi: 6 · MiMo: 5
What each AI noted 4
- Claudeplace 5
$806M budget, from the same leak as Cold War.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 2
More than $640 million in lifecycle development is attached to another roughly six-hour story.
Source ↗ - Kimiplace 6
$640M confirmed — about $134M per hour of its 6-hour campaign in 2026 dollars.
Source ↗ - MiMoplace 5
$640 million confirmed — the second court-filing budget in a series that sells on multiplayer, not on story length.
Source ↗
4 of 8 - 4
Grand Theft Auto VI
Estimate only. Reports say $1–1.5B, and Rockstar denies it passed $1.5B. If confirmed it would be #1, but it has no budget or play hours yet.
Included it: Kimi, DeepSeek, MiMo. Did not include: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Gemini, Ernie.In their lists: Kimi: 1 · DeepSeek: 1 · MiMo: 1
What each AI noted 3
- Kimiplace 1
Probably the first billion-dollar game — Rockstar's publishing chief insists it did NOT pass $1.5B, and nobody outside Take-Two knows the real number.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 1
Rockstar insists GTA VI did not cost more than $1.5 billion, but even at the lower $1 billion estimate it is the most expensive game ever made — and its main story is likely shorter than Red Dead Redemption 2’s.
- MiMoplace 1
Widely tipped at $1–2 billion — and Rockstar's head of publishing has denied it passed $1.5 billion, without saying what it did cost.
3 of 8 - 5
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
$450M+ confirmed in court (more than $640M today). It has the longest Call of Duty campaign at 9 hours, which still works out to about $71M per hour.
Included it: ChatGPT, Kimi, MiMo. Did not include: Claude, Meta, Gemini, DeepSeek, Ernie.In their lists: ChatGPT: 3 · Kimi: 8 · MiMo: 6
What each AI noted 3
- ChatGPTplace 3
Its reported $450 million-plus lifecycle development total has firmer sourcing than several larger estimates.
Source ↗ - Kimiplace 8
Its $450M budget surfaced in a school-shooting court case, not a press release — the series' longest campaign (9h) still cost ≈$68M per hour.
Source ↗ - MiMoplace 6
$450 million confirmed — proof that the billion-dollar CoD era started before anyone budgeted a billion.
Source ↗
3 of 8 - 6
Cyberpunk 2077
The only budget here published by the company itself: $441.9M including Phantom Liberty (about $526M today). The base game works out to about $16M per hour over 26 hours.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi, DeepSeek, MiMo. Did not include: Meta, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 6 · ChatGPT: 6 · Gemini: 3 · Kimi: 9 · DeepSeek: 6 · MiMo: 7
What each AI noted 6
- Claudeplace 6
$526M, but only about 22 hours of main story; the 103-hour completionist run lowers the cost per hour to about $5M.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 6
The publisher-reported total includes a large marketing share; its 26-hour story provides more playtime than the shooters above.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 3
Audited corporate filings confirmed $316 million at launch and $441 million lifetime investment, translating to $8.8 million in dev costs for each of its 26 campaign hours.
Source ↗ - Kimiplace 9
The most honest budget in gaming: CD Projekt published it — $316M for the base game, $126M more to fix and expand it, $442M total.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 6
Cyberpunk 2077’s total project cost of roughly $440 million — including marketing and post-launch patches — works out to about $18.3 million per hour of main-story play.
- MiMoplace 7
Roughly $498 million all-in — and a main story players finish in about 26 hours, or 109 hours if they chase everything.
Source ↗
6 of 8 - 7
Red Dead Redemption 2
Estimates range from $170M (development only) to $540M (with marketing), or $218–725M in today's money. About 50 story hours make it the best value per hour of any game here.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi, DeepSeek, MiMo. Did not include: Meta, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 9 · ChatGPT: 4 · Gemini: 2 · Kimi: 7 · DeepSeek: 4 · MiMo: 10
What each AI noted 6
- Claudeplace 9
The most hours per dollar in the table: about 50 main-story hours and 182 for completionists, for a reported $218–385M.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 4
Its 51-hour main story makes its very large estimated budget look different beside the short campaigns above it.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 2
An estimated half-billion dollar venture yielded 50.5 hours of main narrative, working out to roughly $5.4 million in development spend per hour of Arthur Morgan's journey.
Source ↗ - Kimiplace 7
Everyone quotes '$500M' — the only analyst estimate on record is $170M, and Take-Two has never confirmed either.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 4
Red Dead Redemption 2’s estimated $540 million budget bought players roughly 50 hours of main story and nearly 190 hours of completionist content — a development cost of about $10.8 million per main-story hour.
- MiMoplace 10
About 50½ hours of main story and 196 hours to complete — the rare huge budget that actually bought hours.
Source ↗
6 of 8 - 8
Battlefield 6
Estimate. Planned spending was at least $400M (more than $419M today) for a 6-hour campaign, which is about $70M per story hour.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Kimi, MiMo. Did not include: Meta, Gemini, DeepSeek, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 7 · ChatGPT: 5 · Kimi: see list · MiMo: 8
What each AI noted 4
- Claudeplace 7
A $400M+ estimate from Ars Technica, with no hours I could verify.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 5
Sources placed its projected spending well above $400 million before release; the finished campaign averages six hours.
Source ↗ - Kimi
Named differently in its own list: open the full list.
see list - MiMoplace 8
$400 million-plus and a six-hour main story — about $67 million per hour of campaign.
Source ↗
4 of 8 - 9
Grand Theft Auto V
Estimate. The $265M press figure (about $366–383M today) has never been confirmed by Take-Two. It works out to about $12M per hour across a 32-hour story.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi, DeepSeek, MiMo. Did not include: Meta, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 8 · ChatGPT: 7 · Gemini: 5 · Kimi: 10 · DeepSeek: 8 · MiMo: see list
What each AI noted 6
- Claudeplace 8
The $265M press figure never confirmed by Take-Two works out to about $11.6M per main-story hour but about $4M per hour for a completionist.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 7
An unconfirmed $265 million development-and-marketing estimate became about $383 million in September 2026 dollars.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 5
An unconfirmed $265 million budget delivered 32 hours of satirical narrative that went on to generate over $8 billion in revenue, the most lucrative entertainment release ever.
Source ↗ - Kimiplace 10
$265M in 2013 money (≈$366M today) — the number every GTA VI estimate is measured against, and it made $1B back in three days.
Source ↗ - DeepSeekplace 8
GTA V’s combined production and marketing budget of about $265 million — still cited in press estimates — gave players roughly 32 hours of main story, or about $8.3 million per hour.
- MiMo
Named differently in its own list: open the full list.
see list
6 of 8 - 10
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
A leaked Insomniac slide puts it at $315M (about $348M today) for a 17-hour story: about $20M per hour, more than GTA V's per-hour cost.
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, MiMo. Did not include: Meta, Kimi, Ernie.In their lists: Claude: 10 · ChatGPT: 8 · Gemini: 4 · DeepSeek: 7 · MiMo: 9
What each AI noted 5
- Claudeplace 10
$333M for about 17 hours of story, about $19M per hour.
Source ↗ - ChatGPTplace 8
A leaked $315 million total sits beside a 17-hour main story and a 29-hour completionist run.
Source ↗ - Geminiplace 4
A leaked internal Sony budget sheet revealed a staggering $315 million pure development cost for a brisk 17-hour story, soaring to $20 million per narrative hour.
- DeepSeekplace 7
Spider-Man 2’s $315 million budget — the most expensive PlayStation game with a confirmed figure — bought players about 17 hours of main story, a cost of roughly $18.5 million per hour.
- MiMoplace 9
$315 million from the Insomniac leak — and Spider-Man 3 is already projected at $385 million before it is announced.
Source ↗
5 of 8
02Worth knowing
What the AIs noticed while building the list.
Monopoly Go!'s $1B is mostly marketing, and Genshin Impact's $900M+ is about $100M to build plus about $200M a year to run. Both are left out here because they are not development budgets.
Star Citizen's $1B+ is money raised from backers. The company's audited spending through 2024 is $954.6M.
In real terms, GTA V's $59.99 launch price in 2013 equals about $86.77 in September 2026 dollars, which is more than GTA VI's $79.99.
If GTA VI cost $1B and runs about 80 hours, as Rockstar North's Rob Nelson suggested, it would cost about $12.5M per hour, close to GTA V.
03Questions people ask
What is the most expensive video game ever made?
Star Citizen, with $954.6M spent through 2024 according to the company's own accounts, about $1.12B in 2025 dollars. GTA VI's $1–1.5B is only an estimate.
Source ↗What is the most expensive video game ever made to buy?
For a collector's copy, a sealed Super Mario Bros. sold for $3 million at Heritage Auctions in June 2026. Among new releases, GTA VI's Ultimate Edition is $99.99.
Source ↗What is the most expensive video game ever made before GTA 6?
Among released games, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has the largest court-confirmed budget, more than $700M. Sources differ because Star Citizen's larger figure is for an unfinished game.
Source ↗What is the most expensive computer game ever made?
Star Citizen, a PC game, with $954.6M+ spent and more than $1B raised from backers, and it is still in early access.
Source ↗04How we counted
In plain words, no formulas.
1The question
Top 10 Most Expensive Video Games Ever Made: Budget in Today's Money vs. Cost per Hour of Play
2Why this topic
Budget lists and play-time sites are published separately, so nobody has shown how much money went into each hour a player actually gets.
3Where it applies
Global, video games with widely reported development budgets
4What we looked at
- Reported development budget, and marketing where a source includes it, converted to 2026 dollars. Each figure is labelled as an estimate, with its source and with what it includes.
- Average hours to finish the main story, and hours for a completionist run
- Development cost per hour of main-story play
- Launch price per copy in 2026 dollars, for comparison
- Wikipedia: List of most expensive video games to develop — Official and estimated budgets, with notes on what each includes and 2025-dollar adjustments
- Activision court declaration (Game File) — Lifetime development spending for the Call of Duty games, covering the whole game rather than the campaign only
- Cloud Imperium CFO comment — Star Citizen development and marketing spending through 2024
- HowLongToBeat — Player-submitted hours for the main story and for a completionist run
5Who ranked
8 AIs, each building its own list of ten independently and naming a source for every place: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta, Gemini, Kimi, DeepSeek, Ernie, MiMo.
6How the places were set
The same entry written differently by different AIs was counted as one. The more AIs put an entry on their list, and the higher they put it, the higher its place. "AI agreement" shows how many of the AIs had it on their own list. Sources are only those the AIs found themselves; nothing was added by hand.
05Each AI's own list
🇺🇸 Claude10 places · 4 notes
The same question, answered by Claude alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Star Citizen / Squadron 42 (still in development)
About $1.12B in 2025 dollars, raised mostly from backers, with no finished story to divide by.
Source ↗ - 2Monopoly Go! (2023)
A $1B figure for a mobile board game, and it has no story to finish.
Source ↗ - 3Genshin Impact (2020)
About $100M to build, then about $200M a year to keep running.
Source ↗ - 4Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)
$871M for a campaign most outlets put at 6–8 hours, which makes it the priciest hour in the table.
Source ↗ - 5Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
$806M budget, from the same leak as Cold War.
Source ↗ - 6Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
$526M, but only about 22 hours of main story; the 103-hour completionist run lowers the cost per hour to about $5M.
Source ↗ - 7Battlefield 6 (2025)
A $400M+ estimate from Ars Technica, with no hours I could verify.
Source ↗ - 8Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
The $265M press figure never confirmed by Take-Two works out to about $11.6M per main-story hour but about $4M per hour for a completionist.
Source ↗ - 9Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
The most hours per dollar in the table: about 50 main-story hours and 182 for completionists, for a reported $218–385M.
Source ↗ - 10Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023)
$333M for about 17 hours of story, about $19M per hour.
Source ↗
What Claude noticed
GTA VI is not on the ranked list because it has no confirmed budget and is unreleased. Rumours say $1–1.5B, and Rockstar's publishing head denied the budget passed $1.5B. If the 80-hour playthrough Rockstar North's Rob Nelson described to the NYT is right, a $1B budget would be about $12.5M per hour, near GTA V's.
Bigger budgets do not buy longer stories. Black Ops Cold War costs about $110–145M per campaign hour, while RDR2 costs about $4–8M. Open-world Rockstar games give more hours per dollar than the tables suggest.
Several top entries are live services whose figures include years of running costs: Genshin Impact has about $100M to build and about $200M a year after. Comparing them to one-off single-player games mixes different things.
GTA VI will launch at $79.99 Standard, $20 above GTA V and RDR2's $59.99 base price at the time (nominal).
🇺🇸 ChatGPT10 places · 3 notes
The same question, answered by ChatGPT alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)
Its reported lifecycle development spending exceeds $700 million for a game with a roughly six-hour campaign.
Source ↗ - 2Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
More than $640 million in lifecycle development is attached to another roughly six-hour story.
Source ↗ - 3Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015)
Its reported $450 million-plus lifecycle development total has firmer sourcing than several larger estimates.
Source ↗ - 4Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Its 51-hour main story makes its very large estimated budget look different beside the short campaigns above it.
Source ↗ - 5Battlefield 6 (2025)
Sources placed its projected spending well above $400 million before release; the finished campaign averages six hours.
Source ↗ - 6Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
The publisher-reported total includes a large marketing share; its 26-hour story provides more playtime than the shooters above.
Source ↗ - 7Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
An unconfirmed $265 million development-and-marketing estimate became about $383 million in September 2026 dollars.
Source ↗ - 8Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023)
A leaked $315 million total sits beside a 17-hour main story and a 29-hour completionist run.
Source ↗ - 9Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
The original report's $200 million total already includes its $40–50 million production cost.
Source ↗ - 10The Last of Us Part II (2020)
Its roughly $220 million development cost excludes marketing, a narrower scope than several totals above.
Source ↗
What ChatGPT noticed
The three Call of Duty titles alone exceed $1.79 billion in reported original-dollar lifecycle development spending. Their campaign lengths cannot explain that whole-game spending.
Cyberpunk 2077's roughly $316 million launch total included marketing; direct development was about 55% of it.
Star Citizen passed $1 billion in player funding in 2026, but funding raised is not a verified development budget and its main game remains unfinished.
🇺🇸 Gemini10 places · 2 notes
The same question, answered by Gemini alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Star Citizen
With over $850 million invested without a final commercial launch, its anticipated 30-hour single-player campaign Squadron 42 represents an unprecedented $28.3 million per story hour.
Source ↗ - 2Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
An estimated half-billion dollar venture yielded 50.5 hours of main narrative, working out to roughly $5.4 million in development spend per hour of Arthur Morgan's journey.
Source ↗ - 3Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
Audited corporate filings confirmed $316 million at launch and $441 million lifetime investment, translating to $8.8 million in dev costs for each of its 26 campaign hours.
Source ↗ - 4Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023)
A leaked internal Sony budget sheet revealed a staggering $315 million pure development cost for a brisk 17-hour story, soaring to $20 million per narrative hour.
- 5Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
An unconfirmed $265 million budget delivered 32 hours of satirical narrative that went on to generate over $8 billion in revenue, the most lucrative entertainment release ever.
Source ↗ - 6The Last of Us Part II (2020)
Accidentally unredacted FTC court exhibits proved Naughty Dog spent $220 million across 70 months of pure development, investing over $11 million per hour of campaign.
Source ↗ - 7Horizon Forbidden West (2022)
Sony's legal leak detailed $212 million in dev expenditure across 300 staff over five years, reaching $8.6 million for every hour of its 28.5-hour campaign.
Source ↗ - 8Destiny (2014)
Anchored by a landmark $500 million publisher franchise contract, its brief 12-hour launch campaign cost $15.8 million in initial dev capital per story hour.
Source ↗ - 9Halo Infinite (2021)
Extensive development restarts pushed production toward $235 million in today's currency, producing an 11-hour story that cost over $21 million per campaign hour.
Source ↗ - 10Final Fantasy VII (1997)
The 1997 watershed spent $145 million—including a record-setting $100 million marketing blitz—delivering 36.5 hours of story at a modest $2.4 million per hour in today's money.
Source ↗
What Gemini noticed
Adjusted for inflation, classic cartridge and CD-ROM games were actually much more expensive for consumers: Final Fantasy VII's standard $49.99 launch price in 1997 equals $99.50 in 2026 dollars, significantly higher than today's $69.99–$79.99 baseline.
Mobile and ongoing live-service titles like Monopoly Go! and Genshin Impact have surpassed $900M–$1B in cumulative lifetime spending, outpacing traditional AAA development by directing hundreds of millions annually into marketing and user acquisition.
🇨🇳 Kimi10 places · 3 notes
The same question, answered by Kimi alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Grand Theft Auto VI (2026)
Probably the first billion-dollar game — Rockstar's publishing chief insists it did NOT pass $1.5B, and nobody outside Take-Two knows the real number.
Source ↗ - 2Star Citizen / Squadron 42 (in development)
$954.6M spent, over $1B raised from players — and after 12+ years there is still no main story to divide it by.
- 3Monopoly Go! (2023)
A free mobile board game carries a confirmed $1B marketing bill — more money than the development of any console blockbuster on record.
Source ↗ - 4Genshin Impact (2020)
Cost $100M to build — then roughly $200M a year, every year, forever: a ≈$900M+ cumulative tab for a game you download free.
Source ↗ - 5Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)
$700M over its lifecycle — the largest budget ever confirmed on paper — bought a 5.5-hour campaign: ≈$158M per story hour in today's money.
- 6Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
$640M confirmed — about $134M per hour of its 6-hour campaign in 2026 dollars.
Source ↗ - 7Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Everyone quotes '$500M' — the only analyst estimate on record is $170M, and Take-Two has never confirmed either.
Source ↗ - 8Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015)
Its $450M budget surfaced in a school-shooting court case, not a press release — the series' longest campaign (9h) still cost ≈$68M per hour.
Source ↗ - 9Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
The most honest budget in gaming: CD Projekt published it — $316M for the base game, $126M more to fix and expand it, $442M total.
Source ↗ - 10Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
$265M in 2013 money (≈$366M today) — the number every GTA VI estimate is measured against, and it made $1B back in three days.
Source ↗
What Kimi noticed
Bigger budgets buy polish, not hours. The most expensive campaign ever confirmed (Black Ops Cold War, $700M) lasts 5.5 hours, while the far cheaper Red Dead Redemption 2 ($170M analyst estimate) lasts 50.5 — and completionists get 196 hours out of it, the best hours-per-dollar in this top 10.
The $80 price is not a GTA VI invention of greed in real terms: GTA V's $60 in 2013 is ≈$82 today, and Black Ops Cold War's $70 in 2020 is ≈$86 — GTA VI at $79.99 is, in inflation-adjusted terms, a typical-to-cheap blockbuster launch price.
Battlefield 6 (2025) reportedly cost $400M+ — in today's money that already exceeds GTA V's $366M adjusted total, showing how fast 'most expensive ever' inflates.
🇨🇳 DeepSeek10 places · 2 notes
The same question, answered by DeepSeek alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Grand Theft Auto VI (2026)
Rockstar insists GTA VI did not cost more than $1.5 billion, but even at the lower $1 billion estimate it is the most expensive game ever made — and its main story is likely shorter than Red Dead Redemption 2’s.
- 2Star Citizen (in development)
Star Citizen has raised over $1 billion from players since 2012 and still has no release date — its budget comes from ship sales, not a publisher, making it a unique case in game financing.
- 3Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)
Court documents revealed Black Ops Cold War cost over $700 million across its lifecycle — the highest development cost ever reported by a publisher — yet its main story takes only about 6 hours to beat.
Source ↗ - 4Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
Red Dead Redemption 2’s estimated $540 million budget bought players roughly 50 hours of main story and nearly 190 hours of completionist content — a development cost of about $10.8 million per main-story hour.
- 5Halo Infinite (2021)
Halo Infinite’s rumored $500 million budget — never officially confirmed — translates to about $41.7 million per hour of main-story play, one of the highest cost-per-hour figures in this ranking.
- 6Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
Cyberpunk 2077’s total project cost of roughly $440 million — including marketing and post-launch patches — works out to about $18.3 million per hour of main-story play.
- 7Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023)
Spider-Man 2’s $315 million budget — the most expensive PlayStation game with a confirmed figure — bought players about 17 hours of main story, a cost of roughly $18.5 million per hour.
- 8Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
GTA V’s combined production and marketing budget of about $265 million — still cited in press estimates — gave players roughly 32 hours of main story, or about $8.3 million per hour.
- 9The Last of Us Part II (2020)
The Last of Us Part II’s court-documented $220 million budget produced a 24-hour main story, a cost of about $9.2 million per hour — far cheaper per hour than many games with larger budgets.
- 10Horizon Forbidden West (2022)
Horizon Forbidden West cost a court-documented $212 million, giving players about 28 hours of main story — roughly $7.6 million per hour, the lowest cost-per-hour in this top 10.
What DeepSeek noticed
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War cost over $700 million but has a main story of only about 6 hours, giving it the highest development cost per hour of main-story play in this ranking at roughly $116.7 million per hour.
When adjusted for inflation, GTA V’s $59.99 launch price in 2013 equals about $85.87 in 2026 dollars — higher than GTA VI’s $79.99 — making GTA VI the cheapest mainline GTA at launch in real terms.
🇨🇳 MiMo10 places · 2 notes
The same question, answered by MiMo alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.
- 1Grand Theft Auto VI (2026)
Widely tipped at $1–2 billion — and Rockstar's head of publishing has denied it passed $1.5 billion, without saying what it did cost.
- 2Star Citizen
$1,004,888,971 raised from 6.5 million backers — and the game is still an unfinished alpha fourteen years after Kickstarter.
- 3Genshin Impact (2020–)
About $100 million to build — then roughly $200 million a year to keep alive, pushing the total past $900 million.
- 4Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)
The most expensive game with a confirmed exact budget — $700 million, and it is a campaign you can finish in an evening.
Source ↗ - 5Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
$640 million confirmed — the second court-filing budget in a series that sells on multiplayer, not on story length.
Source ↗ - 6Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015)
$450 million confirmed — proof that the billion-dollar CoD era started before anyone budgeted a billion.
Source ↗ - 7Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
Roughly $498 million all-in — and a main story players finish in about 26 hours, or 109 hours if they chase everything.
Source ↗ - 8Battlefield 6 (2025)
$400 million-plus and a six-hour main story — about $67 million per hour of campaign.
Source ↗ - 9Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023)
$315 million from the Insomniac leak — and Spider-Man 3 is already projected at $385 million before it is announced.
Source ↗ - 10Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
About 50½ hours of main story and 196 hours to complete — the rare huge budget that actually bought hours.
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What MiMo noticed
A bigger budget does not buy more story: the two confirmed CoD budgets ($640m and $700m) sit against campaigns measured in single-digit hours, while Red Dead Redemption 2's ~$200–300m bought about 50½ hours of main story and 196 hours of completionist play.
The cleanest confirmed budget in the industry is also the least flattering cost-per-hour: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's $700 million is an exact court-filing figure, not an estimate — which is why it is the right benchmark for every larger rumour about GTA VI.