GTA 6: how long you have to work to afford the game

What the calculation actually does

The displayed price of the Standard edition is divided by the country's average gross hourly wage. That hourly wage is not published as such: it comes from two OECD series, average annual gross wages at current prices and annual hours actually worked per worker. Their quotient gives the hour.

Both series come from the same institution, so from the same methodology and the same licence. That is what makes countries comparable with one another: seven national institutes added together would give seven different definitions of the word wage.

No currency conversion takes place. A price is compared to a wage denominated in the same currency, or it is not compared at all. An exchange rate would be our figure, not the sources'.

What this figure does not say

It is an average wage, not a median. Averages are pulled upward by high earners: for many people the real time is longer than the figure shown.

It is a gross wage, not take-home pay. What reaches a bank account is appreciably lower, and the share withheld varies widely between countries. The figure is a comparable order of magnitude, not a payslip.

It ignores the cost of living. Two hours of work do not carry the same weight depending on what housing and food cost around them. A price-to-wage ratio measures the effort of buying, not the comfort left afterwards.

Why some markets have no figure

The OECD does not cover every country where the game is sold. Where it is absent we do not fill the gap with a national institute: the comparison would lose what gives it value, a single definition of wages across all markets.

One country is set aside for another reason: its store shows the price in a currency that is not the one its wages are paid in. Bringing the two together would require an exchange rate, and therefore a decision of ours about a day and a rate.

Those absences are marked as such in the table. An acknowledged blank is worth more than a manufactured number that would look like a measurement.

How to read the gap between countries

A difference of a few tens of currency units in the displayed price can hide a ratio of several times over in working time. It is the only angle that makes the comparison honest between markets whose incomes have nothing in common.

The gap is not merely a publisher's pricing policy. It follows local incomes first: a nearly identical price in two euro-area countries weighs very differently depending on the wage that pays it.

The Loreside price table carries the up-to-date calculation, market by market, with the year of each wage figure. The values live there, not in this text: copied here, they would be wrong at the first revision.

Frequently asked questions

Does the figure match my own salary?

No. It is a national gross average. If you earn less than your country's average, or if you think in take-home pay, your real time is longer.

Why not use the median wage, which is more representative?

Because no source publishes it consistently for all these markets. We prefer an average that is comparable everywhere, with its limit written down, over a median available here but not there.

Why do some countries show no figure at all?

Either the OECD publishes no wage for them, or their store shows the price in a currency other than the one their wages are in. In both cases, comparing would mean inventing data.

How often do these figures move?

Prices are read from the store pages every day. Wages follow the OECD's annual publication schedule: every row carries its year.