Flagship index · v1.0 preview edition · 26 October 2026

The Real Price Index

Name: The Real Price Index
Creator: AlternativePrice
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The same games cost up to 499% more depending on the country you buy from, and a large share of the cheapest prices take one extra step: a local card or a regional gift card, rather than a one-click buy. This is the first, transparent, open edition of our recurring index of the real, buyable price of games by country.

By the AlternativePrice editorial team · structural (non-sale) landed cost in USD, US = 100 · methodology.

The headline numbers

43%

Real Price Gap (median)

Typical gap between the dearest country and the cheapest you can actually buy from. Up to 499% at the extreme.

up to 1789%

Mirage Gap

For 42 of 59 titles the cheapest displayed price is a Local card price (a card issued there, or a regional gift card), so the cheapest you can pay with any card or a free account costs more. That gap is the mirage, the honesty metric no competitor publishes.

57%

Buyability rate

Share of the headline cross-country saving that is capturable in one step (any card or a free account); the rest takes a local card or a regional gift card.

US = 100

Country Index base

Each country below is its basket landed cost indexed to the United States. Cheapest basket: India (65.9); dearest: United Kingdom (116.6).

Hades ranges from Argentina ($4.99) to Poland ($29.88), a 499% gap.

Country Index leaderboard (basket cost, US = 100)

Each country indexed to the United States across the sample basket. The access badge shows the typical buyability and what share of that country's prices you can actually pay (any card or a free account).

Country	Index	Typical access · buyable
India	65.9	Local card · 0%
Indonesia	67.1	Local card · 0%
China	68.6	Local card · 0%
Philippines	72.0	Local card · 0%
Argentina	80.9	Account needed · 69%
Pakistan	82.2	Account needed · 70%
Türkiye	83.0	Account needed · 70%
Brazil	83.3	Local card · 0%
South Korea	85.9	Local card · 0%
Japan	86.2	Local card · 0%
Mexico	93.0	Local card · 0%
South Africa	95.9	Local card · 0%
Canada	96.4	Local card · 0%
United States	100.0	Buyable · 100%
Singapore	100.5	Local card · 0%
Australia	104.1	Local card · 0%
Poland	107.9	Local card · 0%
Czechia	115.1	Local card · 0%
Eurozone+15 moreGermanyFranceNetherlandsSpainItalyIrelandBelgiumAustriaPortugalGreeceFinlandSlovakiaSloveniaLithuaniaLatviaEstoniaLuxembourgCyprusMaltaCroatia	115.1	Local card · 0%
United Kingdom	116.6	Local card · 0%

Open data

The full dataset is open under CC BY 4.0 (attribution required). Cite "The Real Price Index, AlternativePrice".

Download CSV Download JSON How it's calculated

What this edition covers

This v1.0 preview is computed over a sample basket of 59 titles across 20 countries with full coverage. The methodology is locked so future editions measure real price and FX change, not a method change.

Alto's Odyssey AnkiMobile Flashcards Assassin's Creed Shadows Baldur's Gate 3 Battlefield 6 Black Myth: Wukong Bloons TD 6 Borderlands 4 Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Celeste Civilization VI Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Cuphead Cyberpunk 2077 Dark Souls III Dead Cells Disco Elysium DOOM Eternal DOOM: The Dark Ages EA SPORTS FC 26 Elden Ring Elden Ring Nightreign Geometry Dash Ghost of Tsushima God of War GRIS Hades Hogwarts Legacy Hollow Knight Hollow Knight: Silksong Human: Fall Flat iA Writer It Takes Two Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Lies of P Minecraft Mini Metro Monster Hunter Wilds Monster Hunter: World Monument Valley Monument Valley 2 Palworld Papers, Please Paprika Recipe Manager 3 PCalc Pixelmator Portal 2 Procreate Pocket Red Dead Redemption 2 Resident Evil 4 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Slay the Spire Split Fiction Stardew Valley Stardew Valley (iOS)Terraria The Witcher 3 Things 3 (iPhone)Threema

Limitations (every edition publishes these)

The displayed cross-country gap is not the one-step saving: the cheapest price often wants a card issued in that country (a Local card price, usually doable with a regional gift card as an extra step); that gap is the Mirage Gap.
The ~2% card fee is a model assumption, not a fact; figures include it.
The index tracks structural regional pricing, not temporary sales (the regular price is used).
Currencies the ECB does not publish are converted at a market rate instead of the ECB reference rate.
This first edition is a sample basket (the current catalog), not the full 40-title basket; no prior vintage exists yet, so year-over-year FX attribution begins next edition.