The most load-bearing statistic in Bloomberg's October 14, 2026 feature on GTA 6 is not the budget or the sales forecast. It is a pair of headcount figures: Rockstar had 2,441 employees when Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018, and 4,711 across 12 offices as of August 2026.
Almost every other fact in the feature is downstream of that.
The comparison
| RDR2 (2018) | GTA 6 (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Staff at launch | 2,441 | 4,711 |
| Offices | Fewer, Edinburgh-centred | 12 worldwide |
| Development length | ~8 years | More than 8 years |
| Working pattern | Reported months of 60-hour weeks | Larger workforce, scheduling changes, paid overtime |
| Project policy | Full-studio push late in development | Most of the workforce on one major project at a time |
Doubling a creative organisation in eight years is harder than it sounds. The feature says the growth required not just hiring but overhauling development processes, which is the part people underestimate. A pipeline that works when 2,400 people touch a game breaks when 4,700 do: review loops get longer, dependencies multiply, and the cost of changing a decision rises steeply.
Why Rockstar grew: it ran out of people for the world
The clearest cause-and-effect in the whole feature is the NPC story. At some point in production the team realised it did not have the people to create and animate the volume of NPCs GTA 6 required, and Rockstar opened an additional studio in Los Angeles purely for NPC work.
That is a hiring decision driven by a content decision. The confirmed numbers explain why: roughly 600,000 NPC animations, 700-plus enterable interiors, a map 2.4 to 2.7 times GTA V's, and a stated design preference for a world that behaves rather than one that waits. Populating that at the fidelity Rockstar wanted is a labour problem before it is a technology problem.
More on the studio in Rockstar's Los Angeles NPC studio and on the animation count in GTA 6's 600,000 NPC animations.
The one-project-at-a-time policy, and its cost
The feature reports that after RDR2, Rockstar chose to put most of its workforce on one major project at a time. The reason it adopted that policy is also in the feature: development lead Rob Nelson said senior leadership and a large share of staff were pulled onto RDR2, which pushed GTA 6 back by several years.
So the policy is a fix for a real problem. It also has an obvious consequence: nothing else of scale progresses while the flagship is in production. That is the structural reason the gaps between Rockstar releases keep lengthening, and it is why the leads' stated hope of a faster next game, covered in our piece on Rockstar's post-GTA 6 cadence, has to be read against it.
What changed on working conditions
RDR2's development is reported in the feature as involving months of 60-hour weeks. Management's answer, as given to Bloomberg, is that GTA 6 was different because of a bigger workforce, better scheduling and paid overtime.
Two caveats belong here. These are management statements, not an independent audit. And the same feature covers the countervailing facts: Rockstar reinstated a five-day in-office week in 2024, citing security concerns, and 34 employees were fired, most of whom had been organising a union. Rockstar's position is that they shared confidential information on a Discord server; the former staff say the firings were intended to undermine unionisation. The Glasgow tribunal is hearing the case, with a ruling expected in late October 2026, and management says it will recognise a union if employees want one.
Our coverage of that process is in the tribunal's final week and union recognition.
How this compares across the industry
Context for the 4,711 figure, using publicly reported scales rather than exact current numbers:
- A typical AAA console game ships with a core team in the low hundreds, plus outsourcing.
- The biggest annualised franchises assemble development across many studios, often totalling in the thousands, but split across several concurrent titles.
- Rockstar's arrangement is unusual precisely because the thousands are pointed at one game.
That concentration is the real differentiator, and it is the best available explanation for the density GTA 6 is being sold on. Our GTA 6 versus RDR2 comparison covers how that shows up in the game itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people worked on GTA 6?
Rockstar had 4,711 employees across 12 offices as of August 2026, per Bloomberg. That is total company headcount under a one-major-project-at-a-time policy, not a credited GTA 6 team list, which Rockstar has not published.
Did Rockstar fix its crunch problem?
Management told Bloomberg that a larger workforce, better scheduling and paid overtime changed the picture from RDR2's reported 60-hour weeks. That is the company's account. The ongoing Glasgow tribunal over 34 firings and the 2024 return to five days in office are part of the same story.
Which Rockstar studios worked on GTA 6?
Rockstar operates 12 offices and does not publish a per-studio breakdown. The Los Angeles studio opened during production specifically for NPC creation and animation. Our studios overview has the locations.
Does a bigger studio mean a faster next game?
Rockstar's leads said they hope so, citing reusable engine, tools and workflows. The one-project-at-a-time policy pushes the other way, because it means serial rather than parallel production.
The Bottom Line
GTA 6 is the product of a company that nearly doubled while making it, and the headcount figures explain more than the budget rumours ever did. Rockstar did not get to a state-sized, 700-interior, 600,000-animation world by working harder for eight years. It got there by hiring roughly 2,300 more people, opening an office purely to populate the streets, and rebuilding its own processes mid-project. That is also, inconveniently, why the thing took eight years.