Markus “Notch” Persson’s billionaire status was never really under question, but we always wondered how big his billions were.
Now, thanks to Forbe’s annual listing of the world’s billionaires, we know the Minecraft creator is sitting pretty on a pile of $1.3 billion – about R15.4 billion.
Notch, who sold Minecraft to Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014, now sits right next to Valve boss Gabe Newell on the billionaire ranking – not bad for his debut.
The great Gaben is also worth $1.3 billion, but the duo are actually some of the lowest showings on the list for gaming in 2015.
Yoshikazu Tanaka, the founder and CEO of mobile gaming and social networking service GREE is the only other person in gaming ranked lower than Notch and Newell, with a net worth around $1.1 billion.
Sitting above these rather familiar faces are a few people we hardly know.
William Ding – worth $5.7 billion – is the richest man in gaming. Ding is the founder of an online gaming company called NetEase, which licenses Blizzard’s hugely popular Hearthstone game for the Chinese market, among its other titles.
Another Chinese billionaire, Shi Yuzhu, heads up Giant Interactive – a company that makes, you guessed it, casual mobile games for the Chinese market. He’s worth around $3.6 billion, according to Forbes.
Then there’s South Korean businessman Kwon Hyuk-Bin, who made his $2.1 billion fortune through online gaming.
| Forbes Rank | Name | Net Worth |
| 208 | William Ding | $5.7 billion |
| 435 | Shi Yuzhu | $3.6 billion |
| 949 | Kwon Hyuk-Bin | $2.1 billion |
| 1415 | Gabe Newell | $1.3 billion |
| 1415 | Markus “Notch” Persson | $1.3 billion |
| 1638 | Yoshikazu Tanaka | $1.1 billion |
Unlisted in 2015 is Marc Pincus, chief product officer and chairman of Zynga (also operating in the casual game market) whose fortunes is sitting at around $1 billion.
It’s still more money than many of us will ever see, though.
So, what does a gaming chief earner spend billions on? Don’t worry, we’ve already covered that one, and the answer is hot cars and candy walls.
Check here to see how Notch is spending his Microsoft money, and feel jelly.
If you care to know who the richest South Africans are, take a look at that coverage courtesy of BusinessTech – and maybe have a cry as your debit orders get processed this month.
What would you do with a billion dollars? A candy wall is definitely still on my list. Share your thoughts in the comments below or on the forum.
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