Summary
For some players, the budgets of modern AAA games,at times exceeding $300 million, come as a surprise, but it hardly is, given that these budgets are largely driven by salaries for the developers and other professionals involved in the creation process. Due to the complex nature of game development, most modern big-budget triple-A games typically involve contributions from 2,000–3,000 professionals over several years, including designers, artists, modelers, animators, programmers, VFX and AI specialists, network engineers, producers, testers, marketing teams, localization departments, and more.
Of course, not every person involved works long-term, as the core development team is usually much smaller. However, cumulative counts across years can reach remarkably high numbers. Consequently, the budgets and number of people involved in game development have reached precarious levels in recent years, where a single failure could bury entire studios. This is why more experts and analysts argue that modern AAA game development has become bloated and unsustainable moving forward.
Below, we’ll examine some triple-A games from recent years with the highest number of people involved in their creation, based on developer credits data available on theMobyGames website. Keep in mind that exact numbers are often difficult to pinpoint due to uncredited contractors, cross-studio collaborations, and varying credit policies. As a result, comparisons based on publicly available credit data may not be entirely accurate. Additionally, not every person credited for a game should be considered a “developer,” but rather someone involved in the game’s creation at various stages.
Only one game per major gaming franchise (such asCall of DutyorAssassin’s Creed) will be listed.
As of today, Rockstar Games operates several subsidiary studios worldwide, with over 6,000 employees across its studios, including Rockstar North, San Diego, India, and more. BeforeRed Dead Redemption 2,Grand Theft Auto 5boasted one of the largest developer counts in the industry, a number that continued to grow withpost-launch support forGTA Online, which has received regular content updates for nearly 12 years.
At the time of the game’s release, the project involved over 1,000 people from Rockstar North’s core team, supplemented by additional staff from Rockstar Games' studios worldwide, with a reported budget of approximately $250 million. In total,GTA 5’scredits list 4,700 professional roles as of 2013. Development began shortly after the release ofGrand Theft Auto 4and spanned nearly five years. Such a massive investment proved worthwhile, as the game shattered numerous records across the entertainment industry, generating $1 billion in sales within its first three days.
Skull and Bonesis the first Ubisoft title on this list, but several more will follow. Renowned for creating some of the largest open-world games,with maps that can take hundreds of hoursto fully explore, Ubisoft’s formula has both fans and skeptics. However, all agree that the company’s games are among the industry’s biggest in terms of budgets and personnel. Ubisoft operates over 40 subsidiary studios with more than 18,000 employees, employing a modular approach to game development, where different studios handle distinct regions of a game’s map.
Skull & Bonesexperienced Ubisoft’s most turbulent development to date. As the first video game led by Ubisoft Singapore, the project was shuffled around multiple times. Initially inspired by the naval combat ofAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag,Skull and Bonesbegan development in 2013 as a potentialBlack Flagexpansion before evolving into a full-fledged MMO spinoff tentatively calledBlack Flag Infinite. It later became an independent project, partly because its initial technology became outdated. The game underwent multiple directional shifts and reported reboots, exceeding its budget multiple times, and many were skeptical about the game’s release. Despite a lukewarm initial reception, Ubisoft remained committed to the troubled project and continues to support it. Major updates,including the long-awaited on-foot combat, are coming forSkull & Bonesone year after its launch.
Watch Dogs: Legionrepresents anotherlarge-scale Ubisoft project that didn’t fully pay off, leading the company to put itsGTA-like series on ice. Primarily known for its ambitious “play as anyone” concept and a large, detailed map of a futuristic London,Watch Dogs: Legionfaced numerous challenges during development. The innovative concept proved more difficult to execute than anticipated, resulting in several internal release date delays.
The game was primarily developed by Ubisoft Toronto, but, as is typical for Ubisoft’s open-world projects, it involved contributions from sister studios, including Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Kyiv, and Ubisoft Reflections, among others. This collaboration madeWatch Dogs: Legionone of the company’s most significant endeavors in recent years.
Massive Entertainment’s take on James Cameron’s acclaimedAvataruniverse required significant effort to bring to players, though its commercial success fell short of the film’s achievements. A collaborative project involving Massive Entertainment, Lightstorm Entertainment, Disney, and Ubisoft sister studios,Avatar: Frontiers of Pandoradelivered a technologically impressive and immersive first-person depiction of Pandora’s alien world, despitefacing typical Ubisoft critiquesfor repetitive missions and activities.
Despite a lukewarm reception from critics and players,Avatar: Frontiers of Pandorarightfully claims its place as one of Ubisoft’s most ambitious endeavors, distinguished by its scale, investment, and the number of professionals involved in its creation. This ranks it among the company’s largest projects to date.
Echoing the reception ofAvatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which couldn’t match the success of its films,Star Wars Outlaws— billed as the “first trueStar Warsopen-world game” and the firstStar Warsproject developed without Electronic Arts' involvement since Disney’s 2013 agreement — fell short of high expectations,with disappointing sales for a project of its scopeand brand prestige.
ForStar Wars Outlaws, Massive Entertainment’s core development team (over 750 developers) was supported by Lucasfilm Games and ten other Ubisoft studios, all contributing to the game’s lengthy creation process, which reportedly began in late 2019. A highlight of the game is its handcrafted environments, a deliberate choice to avoid the procedural generation used in other space-based games likeStarfieldorNo Man’s Sky.
Assassin’s Creedhas been Ubisoft’s flagship seriesfor years, with cumulative sales surpassing 200 million units. It’s no surprise, then, that each new installment involves larger teams, bigger budgets, and more development time to deliver to fans. For instance,Assassin’s Creed OriginsandOdysseyeach credit around 4,500 professionals, whileAssassin’s Creed Valhallawas led by Ubisoft Montreal over a three-year development period, with support from 14 other Ubisoft studios worldwide, totaling 5,700 credited professional roles.
ForAssassin’s Creed Shadows,Ubisoft pushed the boundaries further, allocating an enormous budget and even delaying the game from its initial November release date for additional polish. The credits forShadows, which span two hours, list 6,400 professionals, including Ubisoft Quebec’s core team of 600 and numerous supporting studios, who worked on the game for over four years.
AlongsideAssassin’s Creed, theFar Cryseries is another cornerstone of Ubisoft’s open-world titles, with each new entry achieving best-seller status and expanding in scope, world size, budget, and team size. For comparison,Far Cry 6saw a significant increase in scope overFar Cry 5, which credited around 4,700 professional roles. However, despite its higher cost, the latest entry in the franchisefailed to match the success of its predecessor.
ForFar Cry 6, one of Ubisoft’s largest productions to date, ten Ubisoft subsidiaries collaborated on the game’s development, employing the company’s traditional modular approach. The studios involved include Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Berlin, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Philippines, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Pune, Ubisoft Odessa, Ubisoft Winnipeg, Ubisoft Montpellier, and Ubisoft Québec.
Red Dead Redemption 2remains one of the most expensive video games ever made, a title itwill likely hold untilGTA 6is released. Given the game’s ambition, its developer count is undeniably impressive. Early development reportedly began shortly after the release of the originalRed Dead Redemption, with the active phase spanning over five years.
When Rockstar Games realized a group of distinct studios would not necessarily work for the project as grand asRDR 2, it co-opted all of its studios into one large team, presented simply as Rockstar Games to facilitate development between the core team of 1,600 people. In total, thousands of professionals contributed to the game, including a vast number of voice-over actors, localization experts, and other specialists involved in this monumental production.
As part of the Activision Blizzard family, Blizzard adheres to a policy of crediting every employee for its games, which explains whyDiablo 4’scredits list over 8,700 professional roles, not all of whom were directly involved in the game’s lengthy development. With Activision Blizzard encompassing eight studios and over 13,000 employees, the scope of itslatest project in the iconic seriesis undeniably massive, driven by its open-world design, always-online component, seasonal updates, and extensive post-launch support, including the sizableVessel of Hatredexpansion.
To better understand the scale ofDiablo 4’sdevelopment team, considerDiablo 3, released in 2012, which credited 4,600 professional roles — comparable toGTA 5at the time — reflecting its ambitious scope and protracted development. With inevitable increases in scope and budget, and development beginning as early as 2014,Diablo 4boasts one of the largest development teams in the industry, rivaling the most expansive Ubisoft projects.
For years, theCall of Dutyseries has solidified its status as one of thebiggest annual gaming blockbusters, achieving massive sales and commanding equally substantial budgets. The days when a single studio, such as Infinity Ward or Treyarch, developed each main installment on rotation are long gone. Nearly every recent entry is a large-scale collaboration involving multiple studios, including Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Beenox, High Moon Studios, and others.
Due to Activision Blizzard’s recent policy of crediting every employee, which is a commendable practice, it can be challenging to determine the exact number of professionals directly involved in each game’s creation. For example, before this policy,Call of Duty: Vanguardcredited 5,500 developers, whileCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warlisted 4,900. In contrast, the latest entry,Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, credits over 9,000 professionals, as doesCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. With this in mind, it’s clear that every majorCall of Dutyinstallment over the past five years ranks among the triple-A titles developed by some of the largest teams in the industry.
