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A useful current benchmark is $100 million or more to develop an AAA game, with selected modern titles reported or estimated to cost roughly $174 million to $300 million. There is no fixed price or verified industry-wide average: figures depend on a game’s scope and on whether they count development alone, marketing, ongoing operations, or lifetime spending.
What does an AAA game typically cost to develop?
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) described AAA development as a $100 million undertaking “and often much more” in its December 2024 analysis. Treat that as a broad benchmark, not an official minimum or audited average. “AAA” is not a standardized budget category, and publishers do not routinely disclose comparable budgets.
Selected figures published by Omdia in 2025 illustrate the scale—and the need to check what each number means:
| Game | Reported figure | What the figure represents |
|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | $174 million | Development costs, citing CD Projekt Red shareholder reporting, as described by Omdia. |
| Horizon Forbidden West | $212 million | A reported figure; Omdia describes it among later disclosures or estimates. |
| Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 | $300 million | An estimate, not a confirmed company disclosure, as reported by Omdia. |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | $700 million | Lifetime costs cited by Omdia from a court filing—not a development-only budget. |
These are examples, not a representative sample of all AAA games. The $700 million lifetime figure should not be compared as if it were the same kind of number as Cyberpunk 2077’s development cost.
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Why do game-cost figures vary so much?
“Cost to make” can refer to several different accounting boundaries. A production or development figure covers work to build the game; a broader total may include promotion, launch, post-release development and support, or cumulative lifetime costs. Some figures come from company disclosures or legal filings, while others are estimates or secondary reporting. Without those labels, two headline numbers can look comparable when they are not.
Game budgets also reflect different production choices and obligations:
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- Labor and schedule: Large teams working for longer periods increase spending. Ampere Analysis identifies wage inflation and time to market as cost pressures.
- Scope and fidelity: More content, technical complexity, and ambitious presentation can require additional development work.
- Platforms: Supporting multiple platforms can affect workload and production demands.
- Live-service commitments: BCG says live-service games can require longer development as well as investment in data centers, matchmaking, operations, support, and community engagement.
Are AAA budgets getting bigger?
BCG reported that PC and console AAA budgets grew at a 6% compound annual growth rate from 2017 through 2022. The firm forecast an 8% compound annual growth rate from 2022 through 2028 in its December 2024 analysis. The latter is a forecast, not a confirmed outcome, and neither rate describes the cost increase for every individual game.
As budgets rise, publishers may face greater financial exposure from a single release. BCG characterized the trend as publishers placing “fewer, heftier bets.” That is market context, not a guarantee that every publisher or studio follows the same strategy.
How can studios manage development costs?
Ampere Analysis lists options that studios may use to manage production time and expense, including reducing scope, releasing through early access, using off-the-shelf tools, applying AI, outsourcing work, or developing for a single platform. These are possible strategies, not guaranteed savings: the effect depends on the project, its requirements, and how the work is organized.
For readers comparing reported budgets, first check whether the number covers development or a wider period, then note whether it is a company disclosure, legal filing, analyst estimate, or secondary report. Public figures remain too inconsistent to establish a dependable “typical” AAA budget.
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Sources
- Boston Consulting Group, Leveling Up for the New Reality (December 12, 2024)
- Omdia (2025), reported game-cost figures
- Ampere Analysis (2025), game development costs
- European Parliamentary Research Service (2025), report on the video game industry
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