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99 minutes of real-life GTA V would cost £8m, says research

According to insurance experts, it would cost £81,000 a minute if you were to pull off GTA levels of destruction in real life.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
Joe Svetlik
2 min read

You might have yourself a grand old time playing Grand Theft Auto V this Christmas Day, smashing up cars before discarding them like used tissues. But can you imagine what would happen if you did it in real life?

Well one insurance company has put a price on how much a real-life GTA spree would cost, lengthy jail sentences aside. And it might not surprise you to hear, it ain't cheap.

Allianz Insurance reckons just a 99-minute blast on GTA V would cost over £8 million in real damage. That's accounting for every car you burn out, every helicopter brought down by a rocket launcher, and every bus destroyed by a Molotov cocktail. That works out at about £81,000 of damage every minute.

Insurance experts from Allianz sat down and played the game for 99 minutes (sounds like a tough day at the office), keeping a tally of how much damage they caused. During their gaming session, two gas turbines crashed into each other head-on, causing 300 meters of road damage, which would cost over £6.3 million. They also took charge of a jet fighter and took out a helicopter, causing the resulting debris to fall on a residential area. Total cost of that: £1.3 million.

If you had to pay back the total, it would take 500 years at £1,333 a month. Makes a payday loan seem cheap.

"Grand Theft Auto V had a phenomenal response from gamers when it launched in September, smashing retail records," Mark Bishop, Allianz's group communications manager, said in a statement. "The disasters and debris blasting onto screens across the UK is great escapism for many, and fortunately for the gamers who cause such carnage, they never get the bill for the damage."

Will you be unwrapping GTA V this Christmas Day? Or have you already completed it? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.