In 2026, gaming will (almost certainly) reach a huge, seemingly inconceivable milestone. No, I'm not talking about the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 . I'm referring to how Star Citizen's ridiculously successful, seemingly unstoppable, ethically debatable funding model is set to surpass $1 billion next year.

We last checked in with Star Citizen's Godzilla-sized money magnet in April, at which point the game had just crossed the $800 million mark. But that number has grown substantially in the last eight months. At the time of writing, Star Citizen is sitting pretty atop a mountain of 925,647,996 simoleons.

That money was originally sourced through traditional crowdfunding, though nowadays Star Citizen raises funds through a mixture of microtransactions, paid alpha access, and virtual spaceships that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. In any case, at its current rate, Star Citizen should cross the $1 billion marker somewhere around July or August next year. $1 billion. That's enough money to make five God of War: Ragnaröks. And Sony Santa Monica would probably finish those games, too.

I'm being a little uncharitable here (unlike Star Citizen's fans, who are extraordinarily charitable). Star Citizen has been playable in alpha for many years. And while it's safe to say development hasn't been anywhere near as rapid as most players would like, given it's been 13 years since the game was announced, that alpha has gradually expanded over that time. The most recent update landed earlier this month, with version 4.5 adding an engineering role for players to participate in. This let players manage power distribution, repair and replace ship components, and fight literal fires that may spark during in combat or due to other factors.

The big question, of course, is: will Star Citizen ever be finished? This is actually two questions joined together. Its singleplayer campaign—the star-studded Squadron 42—is supposed to launch next year. But the campaign's absence from this year's CitizenCon Direct cast doubt on this release window, though content director Jake Huckaby said this was because RSI was focussed on actually making it?.

"We drew a line in the sand when we said 2025," Huckaby said in October "I don't know if we're going to make it, I just know that we're going to do every single thing possible to make it. And part of that is not taking time for the distraction of CitizenCon." Which isn't enormously reassuring.

As for Star Citizen proper, in August Chris Roberts projected it will reach 1.0 in either 2027 or 2028, a release window so large you could fit Star Citizen's most eye-wateringly expensive spaceship through it. Yet while the game's long, long development has led to minor revolts from the community, it seems players will continue to throw money at it until either the game launches, or Chris Roberts flees for the actual stars in his own private spacecraft.