Most expensive games ever made 2024| ��ƽ��

Most expensive games to develop worldwide as of November 2024 (in million U.S. dollars)

Characteristic	Name (Year)	Developer	Publisher	Development cost (in million USD)	Marketing cost (in million USD)	Total cost (in million USD)	Total cost with 2023 inflation (in million USD)
1	Genshin Impact (2020)	miHoYo	miHoYo	-	-	900+	951+
2	Star Citizen (TBA)	Cloud Imperium Games	Cloud Imperium Games	541+	116+	630+	656+
3	Monopoly GO! (2023)	Scopely	Scopely	-	<500	<500	<500
4	Cyberpunk 2,077 (2020)	CD Projekt Red	CD Projekt	174	142	441.9 (total)	498 (total)
5	Cyberpunk 277 Update 2 and Phantom Liberty (2023)	CD Projekt Red	CD Projekt	103.6	21.6	441.9 (total)	498 (total)
6	Marvel's Spider-Man 3 (TBA)	Insomniac Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment	-	-	-	385
7	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)	Infinity Ward	Activision	40-50	150 to 160	200	341 to 355
8	Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023)	Insomniac Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment	-	-	315	315
9	Marvel's Wolverine (TBA)	Insomniac Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment	-	-	305	305
10	Final Fantasy VII (1997)	Square	Square, Sony Computer Entertainment	40-45	40-100	80-145	152 to 275
11	Halo 2 (2004)	Bungie	Microsoft Studios	40	80	120	230
12	Horizon Forbidden West (2022)	Guerilla Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment	212	-	212	221
13	Destiny (2014)	Bungie	Activision	-	-	140	180
14	The Callisto Protocol (2022)	Striking Distance Studios	Krafton	-	-	162	162
15	Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)	Eidos Montréal	Square Enix	75-100	35	110-135	133 to 164

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Sources

Release date

November 2024

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

November 2024

Special properties

official figures

Citation formats

For AAA studios, the cost of producing video games is now on par with Hollywood blockbuster movies. While costing "only" 100 million U.S. dollars to develop initially, Genshin Impact's ongoing development costs of 200 million dollars per year put the online game's total at 900 million U.S. dollars, with no end in sight.

In addition to development costs, video game marketing costs also play a significant role in terms of game dev budget. The mobile multiplayer board game title Monopoly GO quickly shot to the top of the mobile gaming charts and has remained there ever since. Some of this success can be attributed to the aggressive marketing spending of game developer Scopely, as the company confirmed that it had spent 500 million U.S. dollars on marketing and user acquisition alone.

Released in December 2020 after several delays, CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 is the third-most expensive game published to date, with a total cost of 498 million U.S. dollars at the time of release of its 2.0 Version and Phantom Liberty expansion.

Space trading game Star Citizen, developed and to be published by Cloud Imperium Games, is still in development after a decade and has so far racked up over 656 million U.S. dollars in development costs.