GTA Online: What is the Income of an Arcade?
We look at whether it's worth buying an arcade, and how much money you can make.
The Diamond Casino Heist update for GTA Online includes buyable arcades, entertainment centers full of retro games and skill machines that you can try out, as well as profit from. But how much money is there to be made this way?
How Much Money Can You Make With an Arcade?
Arcade buildings generate money while you play GTA Online, an amount based on, unsurprisingly, the number of arcade machines and games you've actually bought for it. The more games you buy, the more money the arcade will make.
Specifics seem to vary somewhat, but the default amount of money made from buying an arcade and not adding any additional games is roughly $500 every in-game day (that's 48 minutes in the real world). It might be a bit more or less, but it averages to be about that much. You don't even need to do anything to make it generate cash, just sit back and play the game while it slowly accrues money.
As you buy more arcade machines (all of which you can play yourself, some with friends), the money you make increases. By the time you have all the machines, you'll be making roughly $5000 per in-game day, ten times as much as you did before. GTA Online also tells you every time you make a new day's worth of money, so you know when it's time to go back and collect the cash. The safe itself can hold a maximum of $50,000, so be sure to go back and empty it before that happens. It'll take a long time to make back the value of the Arcade building itself, even if you bought the cheapest one, but using it to mastermind Casino heists will ideally make up the difference.
Where To Get Money in the Arcade
Unlike many other businesses where the cash goes straight to your bank account or your pocket, the money stays in the arcade building until you go and collect it. You can find it in a safe in your office, up the stairs next to the bar. Go up to the safe and press right on the D-Pad to open it and take the money inside (assuming there is any). You can also find a laptop where you can buy and rearrange your arcade machines. Don't worry about arranging them a certain way; it doesn't make a difference to your profits.
If you want to know how much money there is to be made through breaking the casino, check our guide here for the money you can make in the Diamond Casino Heist. Or check here to see where you can get the Navy Revolver. Alternatively, go to our GTA 5 cheats page for all the advantages you'd ever need.