The talented and illusive co-founders of Rockstar Games have become the 4th richest people in the UK for gaming. Thanks to their success with GTA, Red Dead Redemption and more, Sam and Dan Houser are worth hundreds of millions.
On Saturday, The Times published their annual UK Rich List. It has revealed how much the brothers are worth and where they place on the list for the entirety of the UK. They have also shared a gaming only list and both Sam and Dan Houser come in 4th place and are worth £350 million ($453m).
This is up from 6th place and £310 million found in the previous gaming only list back in 2020. In 2019, they were worth £300m. Based on this, they worth £10m more per year.
Reaching new heights
As for overall UK ranking, The Times are only sharing the top 350 as opposed to the top 500 like last time. Whilst the GTA duo are not on this list by name, they do have the same worth as the 350th person: Sir Lewis Hamilton. Funnily enough, he comes in 350th position with £350m, the same amount as Dan and Sam Houser. In 2020, they came in 418th position.
The people above them in the gaming list are free-to-play mobile game makers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman (£12.54 billion), web3 metaverse company founder Herman Narula (£780 million) and of Candy Crush fame King co-founder Riccardo Zacconi (£410 million). So if you exclude mobile game and “web3”, the Houser brothers are the most wealthy UK game developers.
The Times have explained how they work out their Rich List. The publication say “The compilers of the Rich List measure identifiable wealth, whether land, property, racehorses, art or significant shares in publicly quoted companies. We exclude bank accounts to which we have no access and small shareholdings in a private equity portfolio. The actual size of their fortunes may be much larger than our conservative figures.” There’s a good chance both Dan and Sam are worth more than the estimated figure.
Rockstar Games fans will notice a couple of errors in The Times’ article though. It notes Dan Houser left in 2010 which is not accurate. He left in 2020 as we reported here. Since leaving Rockstar, Dan has created a new studio and enlisted several other Rockstar veterans. Also, the photo used for Sam Houser is not in fact Sam at all.
Hiding from the limelight
In 25 years since creating Rockstar Games, the pair have been rarely seen or done interviews. Their preference to remain private is much like how they are with their game’s development. A rare interview with Dan Houser was conducted in June this year.
Meanwhile Sam wrote a letter to Rockstar Games fans in November and revealed the first trailer for GTA 6 would come the following month. He also said this after the trailer released:
“Grand Theft Auto VI continues our efforts to push the limits of what’s possible in highly immersive, story-driven open-world experiences. We’re thrilled to be able to share this new vision with players everywhere.”
Sam Houser, Rockstar Games Co-Founder
According to a report by Tax Watch UK, three “Principals” (the Houser brothers and Leslie Benzies) plus other unnamed Rockstar employees were entitled to a profit share worth 50% of the operating profit made on Rockstar titles.
Between the financial year ending in 2014 and 2019, internal royalties stood at $2.5bn for Take-Two Interactive. In just 2017 alone, GTA V generated royalties of $583 million. 2018 saw it make $383m in royalties; most of the royalties go to the Houser brothers.
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