GTA 6 is cheaper than the rest of the series when adjusted for inflation

Grand Theft Auto 6 is actually the cheapest mainline game in the series when adjusting for inflation, although that's certainly not as plausible an argument as some might think.

For a long time, the biggest question regarding GTA 6 was simple, but very important – how much would it cost? The price of triple-A games has risen steadily over the past few years, with Nintendo notably introducing $80 games alongside the Switch 2 and making a bunch of other publishers see pockets of money.

Given the insurmountable hype for GTA 6 and a rumored development budget that would easily make it the costliest game in history, many feared that Rockstar would put a $100 price tag on it and make it the new norm for an already expensive industry. Even if it isn't, anyone who still thinks it's too expensive should consider the age-old money argument that doesn't quite work – inflation.

Don't worry, GTA 6 is actually the cheapest game in the series… if you adjust for inflation

What do you mean that doesn't count?!

Now that pre-orders have finally opened, we know that GTA 6's Standard Edition officially costs $80, which, while not as bad as most of us feared, still makes it the most expensive game in the series to date. However, as pointed out by Redditor GiveMeWaterPls on the GTA 6 subreddit, if you adjust for inflation and pretend it makes a big difference, that's not the case.

For those who don't know, adjusting for inflation basically means taking the price of something and adjusting it to account for how prices have changed over time. That's exactly what GiveMeWaterPls did in their post to prove “people who complained the price was too high” wrong, making GTA 3 the most expensive game in the series after going from $49.99 at launch to $94.28 today.

Alongside that price increase, Vice City goes up to $92.40, San Andreas lands at $87.76, GTA 4 goes from $59.99 to $93.58, and GTA 5 ends at $85.86, making GTA 6's price point the lowest in the series… technically. While adjusting for inflation is an interesting thought experiment, it doesn't really count for much in the grand scheme of things.

The responses to the now-deleted post on the GTA subreddit point out that adjusting for inflation ignores the increased price of rent, wages that barely change over time, the increased purchase price of the consoles needed to even play GTA 6, and more. In essence, it is a hero pointless arguments that have no merit in the real world, especially when trying to defend the cost of a video game.