Top 10 AAA Games With The Largest Dev Teams

Rockstar Games, having a lead role in AAA games, infamously gathered a record-breaking 1,600-person development team for its 2018 Western magnum opus, Red Dead Redemption 2. To bring the game’s massive open world, meticulous animations, and narrative ambition to life, Rockstar took over all of its global studios into one unified workforce, a move that resulted in both the game’s universal critical acclaim and industry “crunch” culture controversy.

2. Grand Theft Auto V

Before Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar had set the bar high with Grand Theft Auto V. Released in 2013, GTA V’s development involved upwards of 1,000 people at its peak, across art, programming, design, and motion-capture teams distributed across multiple Rockstar studios worldwide. With GTA VI looming on the horizon, it’s safe to say that it’ll most likely blow this list out of the water.

3. Halo Infinite

343 Industries’ resurrection of Master Chief’s narrative with Halo Infinite saw 800 to 900 developers working on campaign, multiplayer, and Forge mode elements, emphasizing Microsoft’s determination to maintain Halo as a flagship Xbox & PC franchise. While they may not have as much of a hold on the AAA games industry as some others, many people are fans of Halo Infinite and many others like it.

4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Another hard hitter in the AAA games department, CD Projekt Red’s fantasy masterpiece began life with just 150 in-house developers but swelled to more than 250 core staff, and a global production footprint of around 1,500 people when external contractors, voice actors, and localization teams are included.

5. Starfield

Being a huge competitor in the AAA games industry, it’s a little surprising that this is Bethesda Softworks’ first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, which had some 450 personnel across its Rockville, Montreal, Dallas, and Austin studios during core development. Post-release breakdown also noted that the team ballooned to over 500 when factoring in external partners on quests, worlds, and cinematic assets.

6. Cyberpunk 2077

While it may have been a flop initially, especially for a AAA game, CD Projekt Red’s now highly acclaimed sci-fi RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, benefited from a development team of over 400 people at the peak of development. This included internal engineers, artists, designers, other contractors, as well as localization specialists.

7. Destiny

Bungie’s Destiny, a shared-world shooter, had a core development team of about 350 developers in its initial production, blending engineering, design, art, and live-service operations for ongoing seasonal content.

8. Final Fantasy XV

Square Enix’s long-delayed Final Fantasy XV evolved from Versus XIII to a numbered title under the leadership of director Hajime Tabata. Active development by 2014 included some 200–300 developers, consisting of members of the original Versus XIII team as well as other Square Enix teams.

9. God of War (2018)

Sony’s Santa Monica Studio re-launched the God of War franchise with a new Norse-focused saga in 2018. The studio put a 300-person team to work re-imaging the franchise over five years, one of the largest single-project investments PlayStation had made at that time. The God of War franchise remains one of the more popular AAA games out there, especially with the newest one being worked on, as well as rumors spreading about it.

10. Destiny 2

Building on the first, Destiny 2 is a live service that is ever-evolving. In a report, Axios noted that “hundreds of developers” labor throughout the year on seasonal updates, expansions, and live-event upkeep, highlighting the manpower that goes into sustaining a live AAA universe.

Final Thoughts On These AAA Games

These ten titles illustrate the staggering effort that now goes into developing today’s biggest AAA games. Whether it’s Rockstar’s cross-continent Red Dead Redemption 2 development or Bungie’s Destiny 2 live-game operations, team sizes such as these attest to the complexity, the scope, and the ambition that go into developing and running modern blockbusters.

So, whether you’re a developer intrigued by industry logistics or a gamer curious about behind-the-scenes magnitude, these numbers attest to the collective artistry driving the medium forward for many AAA games to come.