Rockstar has grown to 4,711 employees across 12 offices worldwide, nearly doubling its workforce since the release of Red Dead Redemption II in 2018. The studio has expanded rapidly over the past eight years as it built Grand Theft Auto VI and restructured its development pipeline.
Rockstar’s scale today is far larger than it was during its last major release. A new feature published by Bloomberg confirms that the company added thousands of staff during GTA VI’s development, including a dedicated Los Angeles studio focused on NPC writing, animation and production. The report also notes significant growth in India and other regions as the game’s systems became more complex.
Some of Rockstar’s internal policies have drawn criticism, particularly the removal of remote work and restrictions on accessing development tools outside the office. These decisions arrived during a period when the studio was also attempting to improve scheduling, reduce overtime and address concerns raised after Red Dead Redemption II. Leadership maintains that the larger team was necessary to keep GTA VI on track. However, the increased security protocols did not protect Rockstar from leaks, as someone has managed to get their hands on a working build of the game, and has been leaking gameplay videos from it for months.
GTA VI’s scope demanded a huge amount of content, from its dual‑protagonist AI to its high‑fidelity world simulation. Rockstar says the expanded workforce was essential to meeting those targets, with almost 5,000 staff contributing across 12 offices.
KitGuru says: Rockstar’s rapid growth helps explain how GTA VI became one of the most expensive and labour‑intensive games ever made.
