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Sunday Times Rich List features nine video games multi-millionaires

One in three games entries were connected to Candy Crush, led by King co-founder Mel Morris' wealth at £515 million

The Sunday Times has published its annual listing of the wealthiest people in the UK, with several video games professionals among the rankings.

There are only nine familiar games industry faces among the 1,000 entries in the full 2020 Rich List, but six of these saw their worth increase over last year and one is a brand new entry.

The top games name was Mel Morris, co-founder of Candy Crush creator King, whose worth was recorded at £515 million -- up £15 million since 2019.

He placed at No.267 on the overall list, with the next highest games professional at No.320: current King CEO Riccardo Zacconi, who is worth £410 million -- also up £15 million year-on-year.

There was one more name connected to Candy Crush Saga: the game's designer Sebastian Knutsson. He ranked at No.540, with his worth rising £5 million over the past year to £225 million.

Rockstar co-founder Sam and Dan Houser were the only other games professionals in the Top 500, appearing at No.418 with wealth of £310 million, up £10 million since 2019.

Neil Taylor, co-founder of UK retailer GAME, saw no year-on-year change to his wealth, with his fortune of £230 million putting him at No.533.

No.638 saw the only new entry from the world of video games: Team17 managing director and owner Debbie Bestwick, whose worth was reported as £196 million.

Slightly lower down were Frontier Developments' David Braben and Wendy Irvin-Braben with a combined worth of £182 million, up £50 million from last year.

Finally, the co-founders of 4J Studios -- the Scottish developer behind the console versions of Minecraft -- appeared at No.805.

Chris van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns were each reported to be worth £150 million, same as last year.

The Sunday Times also counted Simon and Yu-Lin Wilson among games professionals at No.783. The pair are the co-founders of InTouch games, which specialises in casino and bingo-style games.

Their worth was recorded as £156 million, up £6 million.

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James Batchelor avatar
James Batchelor: James is Editor-in-Chief at GamesIndustry.biz, and has been a B2B journalist since 2006. He is author of The Best Non-Violent Video Games
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