Where Does Your $70 Go When You Buy a Video Game?
By Ziva.sh • March 2026 • 7 min read
TL;DR / Key Takeaways
- For every $70 you spend on a major game, roughly $21 goes to the platform (Sony, Microsoft, Steam), $3.50 goes to the engine maker, $15–$25 covers marketing, $8–$20 covers development, $2–$5 covers operations, and $0–$15 is profit.
- Most AAA games need to sell 5 to 10 million copies just to break even.
- If the studio didn’t self-publish, the people who actually made the game see roughly $2 to $4 of your $70.
THE FULL PICTURE — $70 GAME, 10M COPIES SOLD
$70 per copy
| Category | Amount | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | $21.00 | 30% |
| Development | $20.00 | 28.6% |
| Marketing | $15.00 | 21.4% |
| Profit | $7.50 | 10.7% |
| Engine | $3.50 | 5% |
| Ops/QA | $3.00 | 4.3% |
$70 in → $7.50 publisher profit (10.7%) → ~$2–$4 to the studio that made it.
01 / Platform Fees
The platform takes $21 before anyone else gets paid
Every major digital storefront charges 30%. On $70, that is $21 gone immediately.
PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Nintendo eShop all charge a flat 30% with no public volume discounts. Steam drops to 25% above $10M and 20% above $50M per game, but most titles never hit those thresholds. Epic Games Store charges 12%. Microsoft’s PC store also charges 12%. But the vast majority of premium game sales still happen on 30% platforms.
Remaining: $49.00
02 / Engine Royalties
The engine takes $3.50
Unreal Engine is free until a game earns $1M in lifetime gross revenue. After that, Epic charges 5% on all gross revenue. On a $70 game that has already passed the $1M threshold, that is $3.50 per copy.
Remaining: $45.50
03 / Marketing
Marketing can cost more than making the game
For AAA titles, marketing budgets routinely match or exceed development. The CMA found one publisher spent $660M on development and $550M on marketing for a single game.
For a $200M dev / $150M marketing game selling 10M copies, that is $15.00 per unit in marketing.
Remaining: $30.50
04 / Break-Even
A $200M game needs millions of copies just to break even
The CMA report found that AAA games greenlit for 2024/2025 have average development budgets of $200M+, up from $50 to $150M in 2018.
At 5 million copies the studio loses $137.5M. At 10 million it clears $75M. At 25 million, $712.5M.
05 / Other Costs
The other costs add up fast
| Category | Typical range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Server hosting (100K CCU shooter) | ~$264K/month | AWS GameLift |
| QA testing (AAA, multi-platform) | 10% of dev budget | Generalist Programmer |
| Localization (10–15 languages, with VO) | $200K–$1M+ | Artlangs, Transphere |
| Voice acting (SAG-AFTRA rate) | $1,135 per 4-hour session | ABS Payroll |
| IP licensing (e.g. FIFA name) | $150M/year | Inside World Football |
| Music licensing per track | $5K–$30K buyout | Digital Music News |
| Live-service ops (Genshin-scale) | ~$200M/year all-in | TheGamer |
06 / Full Picture
The full picture for a $70 game selling 10 million copies
About 30 cents of every dollar goes to the platform. 29 cents covers development. 21 cents is marketing. 5 cents is the engine. 4 cents is operations. About 11 cents is publisher profit.