Kalshi offers $120,000 salary for a full-time GTA VI researcher

Prediction market company Kalshi announced on LinkedIn on Thursday that it is hiring a full-time researcher to play Grand Theft Auto VI and study its in-game economy, offering a salary of $120,000 per year, or upon project completion, plus bonuses of up to $15,000.

"This is a real job. We're looking for someone whose parents said video games would never pay the bills. They were wrong, and you can tell them we said so," said Chris Tanasescu, Growth lead at Kalshi, in a LinkedIn post. Even though company employees have publicly insisted the offer is legitimate, The Jerusalem Post could not independently verify that anyone will actually be contracted to perform the role.

According to the posting, the GTA VI Researcher position requires at least three years of streaming experience. The hire is expected to play and livestream the game starting at midnight on launch day, Thursday, November 19, and to build a model of the economy of Leonida, the fictional state where the game is set.

"As Kalshi's GTA VI Researcher, you'll begin at midnight on November 19 and play until you beat the story. You'll stream the entire journey, investigate Leonida's economy, and study what happens to the real economy when everyone suddenly has a 'family emergency' on launch day," the company said in the job offering.

Tanasescu added that the researcher should "Live, and breathe GTA VI on release and provide real economic data and insights IRL and in Vice City," and "Study the Leonida economy and deliver an official State of the Leonida Economy address."

The posting also says the job involves tracking the "real-life effects" of the launch on the world economy, including how many people called in sick, how much money was made delivering food, and "how much productivity America lost." The final goal, Kalshi said, is to produce a "min-max guide" showing players how to finish the game as efficiently as possible while learning all of its tricks.

Data from the salary tracking platform Indeed suggests the offer is roughly in line with what Kalshi already pays online talent. The company pays content creators in the United States an average of $150,000 per year, with top influencer payouts reaching about $250,000 annually and higher deals for major streaming stars not publicly available. At the lower end, Kalshi has reportedly paid influencers as little as $54,000 per year.

The game itself is expected to take a heavy toll on the American and world economy on launch day. Estimates cited say more than a billion dollars in productivity will be lost in the US as people call in sick, with more than a million American workers expected to stay home on Thursday. Some companies are even offering employees the day off so they can play at launch.

GTA VI has already passed $1 billion in revenue from preorders alone, with more than 10 million copies sold worldwide as of Friday. Rockstar, the company behind the game, invested roughly $2 billion in its development and marketing and expects to generate between $3.2 billion and $7 billion in sales after launch.