Game Development Costs on Steam Exceed $27 Billion in 2025
Game development is becoming more and more expensive, and the latest data shows just how fast things are growing. In fact, 2025 was a record year for spending on new games released on Steam.
According to new data, the total budget invested in new games released on Steam exceeded 27 billion dollars, setting a new all-time high.
Video Game Budgets Reach Record Levels on Steam in 2025
Just two years ago, this figure was around 20 billion dollars, while in 2015 it was only about 5 billion. In simple terms, development costs have increased more than five times over the past decade.
This strong growth is driven by several factors. According to HushCrasher analysts (via Game World Observer), the main reasons are the large increase in the number of games released, the impact of global inflation, and strong competition to attract players. Because of this, bigger studios like AA and AAA teams are spending more money to improve graphics and include more content.
Looking at the details, AA games have seen the biggest increase in costs over the last ten years. On average, these games cost about 20 million dollars to develop in 2025, which is a 250% increase compared to 2015. AAA games have also become more expensive, with average budgets rising by 224% to reach around 300 million dollars.
Smaller studios are also affected. Mid-sized teams now spend about 1 million dollars on average, up by 166%, while indie developers spend around 100K dollars, an increase of 156%.
Costs also vary depending on the type of game. Virtual reality (VR) games have seen the fastest growth. While their budgets were stable until 2021, the rise of the metaverse trend caused a sharp increase, with costs growing more than four times in seven years. Action-adventure and free-to-play games also saw strong growth, with budgets increasing by about 2.8 and 2.3 times respectively.
However, not all genres follow this trend. Some types of games, such as classic point-and-click adventures, have actually become cheaper to develop over time.
To estimate these figures, HushCrasher used a complex method. The platform looked at factors such as the experience of development teams, the number of people listed in the credits, the number of supported languages, and many “other variables” to reach these results.
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