# 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_industry) all charge a flat 30% with no public volume discounts. [Steam](https://www.demandsage.com/steam-statistics/) drops to 25% above $10M and 20% above $50M per game, but most titles never hit those thresholds. [Epic Games Store](https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/distribution/revenue-programs/revenue-share) charges 12%. [Microsoft’s PC store](https://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-store-pc-game-fees-slashed-below-steam-29670986/) 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](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/we-are-updating-unreal-engine-twinmotion-and-realitycapture-pricing-in-late-april) 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](https://kotaku.com/microsoft-activision-blizzard-call-duty-gta-vi-halo-1850391113) 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAA_(video_game_industry)) 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](https://aws.amazon.com/gamelift/servers/pricing/) |
| QA testing (AAA, multi-platform)       | 10% of dev budget     | [Generalist Programmer](https://generalistprogrammer.com/tutorials/game-development-cost-analysis-complete-budget-guide-2025) |
| Localization (10–15 languages, with VO) | $200K–$1M+           | [Artlangs](https://artlangs.com/news-detail/How-Much-Does-Game-Localization-Cost--A-2025-Guide-for-Developers), [Transphere](https://www.transphere.com/game-localization-costs/) |
| Voice acting (SAG-AFTRA rate)          | $1,135 per 4-hour session | [ABS Payroll](https://abspayroll.com/sag-rates-current/) |
| IP licensing (e.g. FIFA name)          | $150M/year            | [Inside World Football](https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2021/10/25/fifas-chase-1bn-ea-sports-license-cost-150m-year/) |
| Music licensing per track                | $5K–$30K buyout      | [Digital Music News](https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2024/09/08/heaven-17-musician-turned-down-gta-vi-sync-offer/) |
| Live-service ops (Genshin-scale)       | ~$200M/year all-in    | [TheGamer](https://www.thegamer.com/genshin-impact-most-expensive-game-ever-made/) |

---

## 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.