Amid concerns of rising costs, everyone in the gaming community is discussing one thing: video game prices. Video games have kept a consistent price for over a decade, but economic instability, inflation, and rumors are stoking fears of a dramatic increase in price.
Rumors have been circulating that the long-awaited sequel, Grand Theft Auto 6 (aka GTA 6), will cost $100, up from the industry standard of $70. This has led to traders on top prediction platforms Kalshi and Polymarket predicting just how high the game price will be.
Anticipated GTA 6 price on the rise at prediction markets
As of Apr. 8, Kalshi users forecast GTA 6 to cost $78.40.
On Polymarket, traders have the odds that the game will cost $100 or more at 14% as of April 8. An important note is that if the game is $99.99, this would be below $100 and resolve the market as No.
Grand Theft Auto 6 release is highly-anticipated
Grand Theft Auto 6 is part of the larger Grand Theft Auto franchise. In this open-world video game, you control a criminal and have to complete missions in the criminal world of whichever city that game recreated.
Rockstar Games released the first version in 1997, but there have been seven main entries, and GTA 6 would be the eighth. Grand Theft Auto 5, its predecessor, became the third best-selling game of all time, with over 200 million sales. The game description is as follows:
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet. Coming 2025 to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
As mentioned, GTA 6 is slated to be released in late 2025, but Rockstar Games is notorious for delaying its games. Still with only a single trailer to go on, the anticipation for the game is astronomically high.
What is the standard price for a video game in 2025?
For close to 15 years, the standard price for video games was $60. It didn’t even rise when a new generation of consoles – Xbox One and PS4 – came out.
However, when the following generation Xbox Series X/S and PS5 debuted, the prices rose to $70. Many fans were not thrilled about this decision but were also not shocked by it.
While movie tickets and other forms of entertainment continued to rise in price, the video game industry maintained prices for over a decade.
Things may change with the next Nintendo Switch, which will be released on June 5. The Switch 2 was largely expected to increase its prices to meet the new industry standard of $70.
However, on April 2, Nintendo Direct announced the Switch 2 and a larger price hike. The new Mario Kart World is listed for $80 on Nintendo’s website, while the physical copy will cost $90.
This cost increase has puzzled analysts and fans and raised concerns that Nintendo is setting a new industry standard.
Nintendo Switch 2:
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) April 2, 2025
- Launches June 5
- $449 / $499 with Mario Kart
- Pre-Orders on April 9
- Digital Games are now $80 pic.twitter.com/ZiDIkDuGTV
Could GTA 6 breach the $100 price point?
It’s possible that Mario Kart World being listed for $80-$90 could influence the pricing of GTA 6. After all, they are about to sell what is most likely going to be the biggest game of the year (if it doesn’t get delayed).
The next logical thought is that if Nintendo is charging $80 for Mario Kart, Rockstar Games could definitely make Grand Theft Auto 6 even more expensive. While the $100+ cost rumor has seemed absurd in the past, Nintendo’s announcement makes it much more of a potential likelihood.
However, given the strong negative reaction online from fans, this may actually show Rockstar Games that they shouldn’t do this. And if they do plan to release GTA 6 in late 2025, they have time to see how Nintendo’s video game sales perform in June and decide if they should follow suit or up the ante.
Rockstar watching all of us react to Mario Kart being $80 knowing they bout to drop GTA6 for $100 pic.twitter.com/R01bfGtIWQ
— Tyler (@Nanogenix) April 2, 2025
Reasons against a price hike
But the reality is that they have many reasons not to increase the price.
GTA 6 already has extremely high expectations, and an increased price could trigger a backlash and lower sales. Moreover, with economic difficulties due to rising tariffs and inflation, fans have less disposable income. Now would be a bad time to increase the price.
In addition, they want to make the game as accessible as possible, and a $100 price tag would do the opposite. Many fans are theorizing that the standard game will be under $100, but a premium version of the game would be over $100.
that's it, there's literally nothing stopping rockstar games from making GTA $100
— JOLLY J✨ (@DynamoSuperX) April 2, 2025
the gaming industry is SO COOKED. 😭 https://t.co/P6jXcdBjWL
Regardless, a price hike for Rockstar Games also doesn’t make sense because they also have to consider continuous revenue. Grand Theft Auto Online, the online portion of GTA 5, has generated recurring revenue for the company. The online version of the game makes the company over half a billion dollars a year just in micro-transactions.
If Rockstar Games is planning to recreate this success and have an online version of GTA 6, too, it would be smarter to lower the barrier of entry for GTA 6 for the purpose of long-term profit from the online version’s micro-transactions.
It’s a winning formula that worked and is probably exactly why they will not make the game over $100, but will likely make it closer to the $80-$90 range.
