Top 30 UK’s Richest Game Developers and Content Creators

With an estimated market value of $189 billion (£146 billion), it’s no surprise that the video game industry produces wealthy individuals.

At the top are Russian-born brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman of Playrix, a mobile gaming firm that has discovered a money-making formula. The pair’s fortune is estimated to be £12.5 billion, putting them far ahead of the competition.

Their biggest hits blend the simplicity of match-three puzzle games (like Candy Crush) with other popular genres such as horticulture simulators and city builders.

By 2021, Playrix’s blockbuster Gardenscapes had produced over $3 billion (£2.3 billion) in player spending. Township, another popular Playrix game, has exceeded $2 billion (£1.5 billion) in lifetime sales as of October 2023.

Riccardo Zacconi, Mel Morris, and Sebastian Knutsson of Candy Crush developer King are among the top ten individuals who have benefited from the tile-matching game’s success.

Herman Narula, who has accumulated a fortune of £780 million from the “metaverse” notion of the internet as an inhabitable virtual environment, ranks second on the list.

While the technology has yet to make it past the proof-of-concept stage and into the mainstream, Narula has benefited greatly from it, thanks in large part to eye-popping investments in his London-based metaverse business Improbable.

The firm founded by a Cambridge graduate from Delhi aims to fully utilize the metaverse for business purposes. Last September, Improbable raised $100 million (£77 million) in capital, valuing the company at more than $3 billion.

Surprisingly, Grand Theft Auto linchpins Sam and Dan Houser rank fourth with an estimated worth of £350 million. The brothers have helped propel developer Rockstar into an entertainment juggernaut, with production that routinely outperforms Hollywood blockbusters.

Dan Houser was a co-founder and the studio’s vice president of creativity, helping to develop notable titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. He quit the organization in 2020 after taking a sabbatical since spring 2019.

Sam Houser, the president of Rockstar Games, has not left the company. He has contributed to the company’s creative direction, including the popular GTA V and its online equivalent, as well as the upcoming GTA 6.

While it’s dominated by game developers you’ve probably never heard of, despite having played their most popular titles, there are a few famous names on the list. KSI and The Sidemen, content providers, were placed joint 21st with an estimated net worth of £50 million. Other streamers on the list include Dan Middleton (aka Dan TDM) and Felix Kjellberg.

The Sunday Times Gaming Rich List emphasizes the gender inequality at the top of the industry. While the list includes a multitude of minted men, women are glaringly absent, with only a few making it.

The list includes only three women: Debbie Bestwick, former CEO of Team17, who has a £130 million fortune, and Tamsin O’Luanaigh, founder of virtual reality company nGames, who has a joint wealth of £26 million with her husband Patrick.

Wendy Irvin-Braben, of game maker Frontier Developments, is the only woman in the top ten, ranking 10th with husband David and a net worth of £175 million.