Technology
A Beginner’s Guide to Cryptocurrencies
A Beginner’s Guide to Cryptocurrencies
With money pouring into the blockchain from investors, venture capitalists, and strategic partners, it is clear that cryptocurrencies will continue to be in the spotlight for years to come.
However, as with any newly emerging field, being in the spotlight can present a double-edged sword. It makes for an environment full of passionate and extremely technical discussion, but it also opens the door to blatant promotional pump-and-dump schemes and inflexible factions of cheerleaders or naysayers.
This clutter makes it considerably difficult for the average person to really wrap their head around the crypto space – and it creates opportunities to simplify the sector in an easy, digestible, and accessible way.
A Guide to Cryptocurrencies
Today’s infographic from BestAccountingSchools provides an introductory guide to cryptocurrencies, and it highlights the history, important terms, and statistics about the crypto space. It also profiles some of the pioneers that made it all happen.
It’s a great start for anyone looking to get up to speed on what’s happening in crypto – and we thought we would accompany it with some additional infographic resources that we have available on the topic as well.
Bitcoin’s Journey to $10,000 – This timeline chart catalogs Bitcoin’s wild 2017, in which it catapulted from $1,000 to $10,000 in just 11 months.
Comparing Crypto – This giant infographic compares the differences in design and protocol of six key cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Dash, and Ripple.
The ICO Explosion – The popularity of cryptocurrency has also led to a boom in initial coin offerings (ICOs). This nifty data visualization helps to show this.
Top 25 Cryptocurrencies – This infographic showcases the top 25 cryptocurrencies, organized by different factors: market cap, trading volume, purpose, and inception date.
Intro to Smart Contracts – Cryptocurrencies aren’t just about payments – they are also being used to automate transactions to avoid middlemen. This infographic on the power of smart contracts helps to introduce these concepts.
Historical Context – All the way back in 2013 and 2014, we put together infographics documenting the first 5 years of Bitcoin’s history, as well as why we predicted that Bitcoin would eventually disrupt banking in 2014.
Do you have any other great graphical resources that could be included for a beginner’s guide to cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments.
Technology
Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues
Dive into the GTA budget through the years, with GTA VI set to be the most expensive video game of all time.
Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues
Over 10 years since the launch of Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the second most-sold video game in history, Rockstar Games has announced its sequel GTA VI will be “coming 2025.”
As the anticipation only grows for this next big entry in the franchise, we take a look at the GTA budget through the years. How much have the last two games cost to make, how much have they earned, and how do they compare with the latest entry?
Data for this visualization comes from Statista, TweakTown, and Twitch Metrics.
How Much Has GTA VI Cost to Make?
The GTA franchise has grown enormously in scale from humble beginnings as a top-down, 2D video game in 1997. Fifteen installments later, the upcoming release, GTA VI, is estimated to be the most expensive video game to be made yet.
Here’s a look at how much GTA VI and the last two major releases cost, and how much revenue they’ve earned as of August 2023.
| Year | Title | Production Costs ($) | Revenue ($) | Copies Sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 (est.) | GTA VI | $2B (rumored) | N/A | N/A |
| 2013 | GTA V | $265M | $7.7B | 185M |
| 2008 | GTA IV | $100M | $2B | 25M |
In 2008, GTA IV cost around $100 million—already a budget that rivalled big Hollywood releases. However with 25 million copies sold, the game earned nearly $2 billion—a five-fold return on its production cost.
Five years later, GTA V (2013) cost more than $200 million to make—twice GTA IV’s budget. A decade after its release, GTA V has generated close to $8 billion, with hundreds of millions in annual revenue from subscriptions and in-game purchases—a model that its successor is sure to follow.
In fact, subscription fees and in-game purchases represented 78% of Take-Two Interactive’s (parent of GTA developer Rockstar Games) revenues in 2023.
Analysts estimate the to-be-released GTA VI’s costs at $2 billion, including marketing and other expenses. A massive open-world (set in the Miami-inspired “Vice City”), cutting edge graphics, and a reportedly brand-new game engine are all reasons for the game’s outsized budget.
For comparison, the current most expensive games to have been made include Red Dead Redemption 2 (also by Rockstar) and Star Citizen, both reportedly with a $500 million budget.
Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive shares are up more than 50% for the year.
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