The UK’s top 30 richest gamers and creators in 2024

Two brothers who grew up impoverished in post-Soviet Russia have topped The Sunday Times Gaming Rich List, amassing a £12.5 billion fortune from Playrix, the mobile games business they launched with an ageing Pentium PC bought for them by their grandfather.
Igor and Dmitry Bukhman lead the inaugural UK rankings, which include the developers behind Candy Crush and Grand Theft Auto and YouTubers including PewDiePie, a 34-year-old who has chalked up nearly 30 billion views — and £15 million — from people simply watching him play. The list also includes a former McDonald’s burger flipper and a former Tesco shelf-stacker.
The list, which features the wealthiest 30 entrepreneurs to have built their fortunes from developing, selling or playing video games, shines a spotlight on one of the UK’s great success stories. British-based gaming companies generated £10.7 billion last year, according to data from Statista.
This year’s research also found:
• More than 70 per cent of the £17.1 billion of identified wealth stems from the Bukhman brothers.• Harry Lewis, 27, is the youngest person on the list, appearing alongside KSI and five fellow members of the YouTube stars known as the Sidemen. • More than a quarter of the 42 gamers and developers who appear are under 35. The average age is 45.• Debbie Bestwick, the former chief executive of Team17, is one of three women on the list.• Three entries owe their places to Candy Crush, the tile-matching game that has been downloaded more than three billion times since its launch on Facebook 12 years ago.
The first edition of the Gaming Rich List arrives at a moment of contrasting fortunes for the industry. Despite the boom, Ukie, the industry body, calculates that more than 1,000 jobs have been lost from British gaming companies since the end of their pandemic boom.
Playrix, the mobile gaming giant with annual revenue of about £2.5 billion, was one such company that benefited from the Covid bounce but has continued to grow. Based in Dublin for more than a decade, Playrix has made its money from free-download games such as Fishdom, Gardenscapes and Township. They are typically played in short bursts — on the commute or, let’s be honest, the toilet — and make money from in-app payments or “microtransactions” that accelerate progress.
Light-hearted and accessible, the Bukhmans’ games offer instant gratification through puzzles and simple grid-based games. In-game currency and unlockables, such as new buildings or furniture, can be quickly obtained by finishing tasks, so progression feels rewarding with minimal effort.
With the help of an ageing, Pentium 100-powered PC, the brothers began to develop their own games and screensavers in Vologda, 300 miles northeast of Moscow. This would be the start of Playrix, the developer behind Fishdom, Gardenscapes and Township.
The Bukhmans’ four most successful games have brought in revenues of almost $10.5 billion (£8 billion), according to Statista. The brothers’ investment and philanthropy operation Rix Capital is based in London and manages billions of pounds.
Igor, 42, owns two adjoining properties in Kensington. The first set him back £45 million and the second another £24 million. They have left Russia and spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine, have Israeli citizenship and have lived in London since 2020.
Narula’s metaverse developer, Improbable, makes it possible for up to 30,000 people to play the same game simultaneously. The Cambridge computer science graduate set up the London-based developer with his friend Rob Whitehead in 2012. Avid gamers, the pair’s technology has been used by retailers, event organisers and even the Ministry of Defence to create virtual worlds. Narula, 36, owns nearly 30 per cent of the shares.
Born in Italy to a dentist father, Zacconi, 57, sold his car and moved in with a friend to make ends meet after co-founding the developer King Digital Entertainment 20 years ago. At one point his London-based outfit was hours away from being wound up. He hit the jackpot with Candy Crush Saga in 2012. Launching the app on Facebook blew up demand.
Zacconi received about £376 million when King was sold to a US rival four years after Candy Crush launched.
Educated at the exclusive London private school St Paul’s, the Houser brothers are best known as the creative force behind the high-octane Grand Theft Auto franchise. Its revenue over the past 27 years exceed £7 billion — more than the global box office takings of all five of Daniel Craig’s James Bond films. Anticipation is building before the release next year of Grand Theft Auto VI, the 16th game in the series including spin-offs. Sam, 52, remains president of Rockstar Games. His brother Dan left the company in 2010 and has since set up Absurd Ventures, a new media company with the strapline: “Storytelling. Philanthropy. Ultraviolence.”
This Israeli gaming entrepreneur made a fortune from Woodoku, a wooden block game similar to Tetris. His London-based developer Tripledot Studios has also released card and word-related games, including versions of solitaire, blackjack and sudoku. Shiff set up the operation with his friends Husnu Babayigit (16) and Eyal Chameides (29) in 2017. Shiff, 46, previously co-founded and sold Product Madness, a maker of casino games hosted on Facebook. His personal holding company shows wealth of £347.2 million.
Facepunch Studios is behind Garry’s Mod, which started as a fan-made modification to the shooter Half-Life 2 and became a popular toolbox for players to design their own games.
Newman, 42, set up Birmingham-based Facepunch nearly 20 years ago after working as a web developer for dating websites. Facepunch has only three titles — Garry’s Mod, the survival adventure Rust and the shooter Chippy — but between them they have sold 38.6 million copies and made annual profits of £34.2 million. Newman owns at least half of the shares and has pocketed a stack of dividends over the years.
After leaving school at 16 and working as a flooring salesman, Morris made his first fortune from selling an online dating service. But it was with Candy Crush Saga that the Derby-born entrepreneur would taste sweeter success. He was one of the first investors in the game’s developer King, scooping £450 million in 2016 when it was sold in 2016 to the US giant Activision Blizzard, the company behind franchises such as Call of Duty and Warcraft, in 2016.
Morris, 68, would pour much of his winnings into taking control of his beloved Derby County Football Club, a crusade that would end in defeat and administration. “Financially I regret it,” he said. “I have lost in excess of £200 million.”
In an age of streaming and downloads, Game is Britain’s only large and dedicated high-street gaming retailer. The London-based chain still has more than 240 UK shops. Taylor, 63, set up the business in his twenties and he and his family made more than £50 million from floating Game on the London stock exchange. Game has been owned by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct since 2019.
This Swedish developer created more than 100 games while working for the games creator King. Not all were hits. But his brightly coloured, tile-matching puzzler Candy Crush Saga proved by far the London-based studio’s biggest hit and largely explains why a US rival paid $5.9 billion (£4.1 billion) for King in 2016.
That deal valued Knutsson’s stake in the business at £213 million. He recently set up a new developer, Queen Digital Entertainment.
While still in his teens Braben co-created Elite, a space trading adventure that developed a cult following in the 1980s and 1990s. It proved hugely influential and spawned three sequels. He later set up Frontier Developments, the Cambridge-based firm behind games that focus on real-time strategy and construction, including Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, Zoo Tycoon and Jurassic World Evolution. Braben was also one of the team behind Raspberry Pi, the low-cost computer credited with boosting IT skills in schools. Braben and his wife Wendy, a former management consultant, still own nearly a third of the shares, holdings worth £32.1 million.
Burns, 55, met Chris van der Kuyl (11=) on his first day at high school in Dundee. They would become friends and in time business partners. Their 4J Studios is based in the Scottish city and has been supercharged by developing Minecraft for the Xbox. Their version of the hit game would shift a million copies within the first five days of its 2012 launch. Burns and Van der Kuyl each own 50 per cent of their £300 million company.
While growing up in Dundee in the 1980s, Van der Kuyl had six ZX Spectrums. They cost £149 in shops, but Van der Kuyl knew how to get his hands on one for “£5 and a packet of Embassy Regal”. His second venture was 4J Studios.A live-action Minecraft film is set to be released in 2025, starring Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge and Jason Momoa.
Midway through her A-levels, Bestwick took a summer job at a video-game shop in Nottingham. She soon hit the escape button on her studies to run the store before moving into games development, founding Team17. The Wakefield-based studio is behind the hit series Worms, the co-operative kitchen simulator Overcooked and last year’s gothic-themed fishing game Dredge. After nearly 30 years as one of the few female leaders in the British industry — and almost certainly the only one with purple hair — Bestwick stepped down as chief executive of Team17 last year. She remains a director and owns shares worth £93.8 million.
The Kingsley brothers set up Rebellion in the 1990s, specialising in creating games to accompany Star Wars and James Bond films as well as The Simpsons. The Oxford-based studio’s biggest hits have also included Sniper Elite and Aliens Versus Predator. Annual revenues of about £54.4 million over the past four years suggest Rebellion is easily worth more than £120 million. The developer’s next title, Atomfall,is due in 2025 and is based on a nuclear disaster in northern England. Jason, a medieval enthusiast, has competed in jousting tournaments and owns three full sets of armour — each costing £25,000.
After consistently bunking off school in south London to code games on his ZX Spectrum, Wedgwood was expelled aged 15 without any qualifications. He turned his life around by landing an IT job at a City bank, finding time to run and write for gaming websites as a side hustle. In 2001 he set up Splash Damage, the developer behind hits including the first-person shooters Doom 3 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. A Chinese chicken supplier paid $150 million (£115.5 million) for Splash Damage in 2016.
Wedgwood, 54, now invests in the next generation of gaming entrepreneurs through his private equity outfit, SuperNova Capital.
A self-styled“mega nerd” and “maths geek” who didn’t even own a games console while growing up in Turkey, Babayigit was 16 when his mother proposed educating him in the United States. When he protested she replied: “Fine — you can be a garbage man, then”. Babayigit went on to complete degrees at Wisconsin, Yale and Harvard Business School.
He spent five years at Facebook brokering partnerships with the games industry, He later took a job at King Digital Entertainment, creator of Candy Crush. In 2017 Babayigit, 44, hooked up with Lior Shiff (No 5 in this list) and Eyal Chameides (No 29) to co-found Tripledot Studios.
The Irish-born Murray, 44, and his team spent five years creating the space exploration game, No Man’s Sky, from a tiny office beneath a taxi firm in Surrey’s stockbroker belt.
Although No Man’s Sky is now considered one of the bestselling games of recent years, Murray called in Scotland Yard after receiving death threats soon after the game’s 2016 launch following delayed releases and bugs. Hello Games, the company created off the back of No Man’s Sky, is now working on Light No Fire, a sci-fi adventure.
After dropping out of university, Stamper set up what would become a world-leading video game developer in Leicestershire. He teamed with his brothers Tim and Stephen to create a string of hits in the 1980s and 1990s under the company name Rare, receiving global acclaim for games such as Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007. The latter is one of the most influential first-person shooters in gaming history. Microsoft bought the family’s shares in 2002. Rare has had success in recent years with its multiplayer pirate adventure, Sea of Thieves.
Boneloaf is the independent developer behind Gang Beasts, the cartoon-style beat ‘em up famed for its surly characters. Brown, 43, launched the Sheffield-based studio with his brothers James, 48, and Michael, 39, after studying a fine art degree in the city. Brown has said Gang Beasts proved “preposterously” more successful than he had expected.
Clunky or irritating adverts have disrupted and annoyed gamers for decades. After time with Google and Facebook, Facey co-founded AudioMob to help brands plug “non-intrusive” messages into games.
Over the past year the number of people playing games featuring AudioMob-powered advertising has soared. Investors have valued the business at £80 million and Facey, 32, owns nearly two thirds of the shares.
In Phasmophobia,players investigate paranormal activity in schools, prisons and asylums. The Kinetic Games title has not even been released yet but it is already been praised for its spooky scenes.
Knight, 28, set up and owns all of the Southampton-based games creator that made profit of almost £73 million between 2021 and 2023.
Singer, entrepreneur, boxer — Olajide Olatunji started as a YouTuber playing Fifa under the name KSI. His three channels have 41.6 million subscribers combined. He has also earned a seven-figure sum from his exploits in the ring and from other TV work, including last year’s Amazon documentary KSI: In Real Life.
Olatunji is the best known of a collective of YouTubers and gamers known as the Sidemen, who collectively have more than 123 million subscribers. The group of seven (KSI, Simon Minter, Joshua Bradley, Tobit John Brown, Ethan Payne and Vikram Barn, Harry Lewis) met either at school or online, drawn together through gaming.
As well as a Sidemen clothes line and vodka brand, the group has built up a Sides restaurant chain.
Outright is a family-run developer of family-friendly games inspired by hits such as Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig. A games industry veteran, Malham, 64, set up the company with his children Stephanie Malham, 41, and Terry Malham-Wallis, 37. Malham has sold most of the company but remains a substantial shareholder.
Purewal says he has been passionate about gaming since the age of seven, and ten years ago he started his own practice advising gaming, esports and other tech companies. These days he is also chairman of Facepunch Studios.
More than 111 million people subscribe to Felix Kjellberg’s YouTube channel. The Swedish vlogger started by posting videos of himself screaming his way through Minecraft games before graduating to at times fairly anarchic comedy. Although he and his family spend much of their time in Japan, Kjellberg and several of his companies remain resident in the UK. A deal with Disney was axed in 2017 after Kjellberg posted videos featuring antisemitic content and offensive imagery.
A former McDonald’s burger flipper who caused an upset at last year’s Bafta Games Awards when his supernatural shooter, Vampire Survivors, was named best game over the blockbuster God of War Ragnarok. He was too shy to attend the ceremony.
Middleton, one of the world’s best-known gamers, started out with a YouTube channel about Pokemon cards but soon switched to making videos of himself playing Minecraft and Fortnite. Before long he was playing shows to audiences keen to learn his tricks. One of his three gigs at the Sydney Opera House was the second-fastest seller in the venue’s history. He has also earned well from voicing characters for Pixar.
Last year the couple sold nDreams — a studio that optimises games for VR headsets and has had a string of hits including Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord — for £90 million. Patrick, 50, describes himself as a “virtual reality evangelist” and wrote the 400-page development guide Game Design Complete.
Chameides is the creative force behind London-based Tripledot that makes engaging word and card games that do not require expensive development, such as Solitaire and Woodoku. “When I was eight years old I designed levels for video games with an HB pencil and a piece of paper,” Chameides’ Linkedin profile says. “I’ve learnt a lot since then… now I use a B2 pencil.”
Woking-based Alastair Aiken, 30, is one of the world’s highest-earning gamers. Better known by his online tag Ali-A, his YouTube channel has nearly 19 million subscribers and mostly features Fortnite and Call of Duty. His wife Clare Callery, 35, is also a YouTuber under the alias Clare Siobhan.