2. Grand Theft Auto V ($265 million)

GTA V’s trio of protagonists Michael, Franklin and Trevor were certainly not role models. They were on the wrong side of the law, and would resort to anything to make money in the rough city of Los Santos. But still, being naughty in a video game has never been more fun and this excellent game won every award imaginable. A remastered edition for the PS4 and Xbox One added a first person perspective mode and a bevy of graphical improvements.

And the game’s budget of $265 million (£170 million) is greater than that of most Hollywood movies. Actually only the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, which crossed the $300 million mark, were more expensive than GTA V. But Rockstar’s investment sure paid off, because the game made a whopping $1 billion in 3 days! Although it must be said that a large chunk of the game’s budget ($150 million) was actually spent on marketing the game. Which is a tad curious, given how wildly popular the GTA series is, you would expect the game to sell itself…

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Next: 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ($250 million)