Number of hours you need to work to buy GTA VI around the world

I posted this over at the thread on !gaming@beehaw.org, and I figure it’s worth reposting here.

Initial thought: My country is looking pretty good, quite a bit better than the Brits!

But then @plyth@feddit.org pointed out that the numbers of Russia and Türkiye are drastically different between the Euope and Asia maps, so I decided to do a bit of digging.

The Europe map just says they used “a mathematical formula that determines the working time”, but the other maps indicate they used the median income rather than minimum wage, so let’s go with that.

According to the Central Statistics Office, median weekly income in the first three months of 2026 AD was €1074.61, which works out to €26.87 an hour assuming a person gets paid for 40 hours each week. €26.87/hr × 2.19hr/GTA6 = €58.83/GTA6). Which, uh, considering GTA6 is going to cost €79.99, either these people aren’t using the median. Someone earning the actual median wage would need to work just shy of three hours to afford 1 GTA6, and that’s not taking taxes into account.

All right, let’s check the UK. According to the House of Commons Library, the median weekly income is £767, which for a 40-hour week works out to £19.18 (that’s €22.38, which is a fair bit lower than the Irish median. I wonder if Brexit has something to do with this). If the map is using median income and ignoring taxes, it means that GTA6 will cost £95.68 in the UK, which it fucking won’t (because it’s €111.62). The BBC reports that it will cost £70, which is about normal; the UK price is normally computed by taking the cost in yankeebucks, applying an exchange rate of 0.9 English lira per yankeebuck, rounding it to the nearest £10, and subtracting 1p. At the actual price, the map indicates that the median income in the UK is £14.03 an hour, which is just £1.32 above the minimum wage for people over 20.

(Some of the above figures have a discrepancy of 1% of the unit of currency due to rounding).

So yeah, I have no idea where these people are getting their numbers from or what maths they’re doing.

Shocked by some african numbers of >600hrs for a stupid game? I don’t need to work at all to buy it (which i will not though). But even those who made it have to work 4hrs for it…wow. And it’s just the average, that means the vast majority needs to work even longer.

I personally think that Rockstar Games is under no obligation to sell GTA VI at a price everyone finds comfortable. If $80 feels too expensive, it usually just means the person either can’t afford it or doesn’t value the game enough to justify the cost rather than it being a moral failing on Rockstar’s part.

For anyone who have enjoyed the series, GTA VI will almost certainly deliver far more than $80 worth of entertainment. Complaining that it’s too expensive comes down to the same logic as saying a jet ski is overpriced. Wanting something badly doesn’t create an obligation for the seller to make it cheaper.