Activision Blizzard’s Robert Kotick came out on top despite controversy within the company over pay and poor working conditions.
Gaming industry CEOs raked in nearly $1 billion in 2020 according to a new report. Activision Blizzard’s Robert Kotick topped the list with $154,613,318. Kotick earned more than any other CEO by a fairly wide margin except Playtika’s Robert Antokol who earned $372,008,176. The total across all levels was over $842 million.
The report of games one dives into the details of CEO compensation. This gives the total, hourly and relative wage. Games One called the release of this dataset “democracy in action.” The survey was intended for “anyone who wants to better understand the dynamics of the games industry”.
Total salary for the purposes of the report includes “salary, bonus, stock, perks — all of which have tax ramifications for the CEO.” Executive compensation generally takes this form to reduce the amount of income tax paid by the individual in question. This is true in all industries. The principle is that income tax can only be levied on actual pay, as opposed to something like stock options. Benefits are usually billed to the company.
“Boards believe there is competition for CEOs and they need to meet or exceed standard comparable compensation in order to retain that CEO.” The result is that the compensation packages keep getting bigger over time. The report predicts that “executive compensation will continue to rise.”
The biggest earner outside of Antokol is apparently Kotick. This despite months of controversy over workplace abuse and various forms of mismanagement. Workers walked off the job in protest over low pay as Kotick rakes in up to 1,560 median employees. For comparison, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick makes up to 252 median employees.
The full list of CEO compensation packages can be found below.
- Lars Wingefors, Embracer Group; $162,293 (total compensation) and $81 (average hourly)
- Claude Guillemot, Guillemot Corporation; $185,004 (total compensation) and $92 (average hourly)
- Hannes Wallin, Fractal Gaming; $238,447 (total compensation) and $119 (average hourly)
- Adam Foroughi, AppLovin; $409,462 (total compensation) and $204 (average hourly)
- Darcy Taylor, East Side Games; $418,473 (total compensation) and $295 (average hourly)
- Alex Nichiporchik, TinyBuild; $419,460 (total compensation) and $209 (average hourly)
- Anton Gauffin, Huuge Games; $470,800 (total compensation) and $235 (average hourly)
- Kati Levoranta, Rovio; $535,722 (total compensation) and $267 (average hourly)
- David Braben, Border Developments; $581,516 (total compensation) and $290 (average hourly)
- Carl Cavers, Sumo Group; $685,495 (total compensation) and $342 (average hourly)
- Abramo Galante and Raffaele Galante, Digital Bros; $712,560 (total compensation) and $356 (average hourly)
- Alain Falc, Nacon; $727,739 (total compensation) and $363 (average hourly)
- Dmitry Kozko, Motorsport Games; $737,672 (total compensation) and $368 (average hourly)
- Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft; $925,314 (total compensation) and $642 (average hourly)
- Marcin Iwinski, CD Project; $1,032,536 (total compensation) and $516 (average hourly)
- Adam Kiciński, CD Project; $1,054,090 (total compensation) and $527 (average hourly)
- Frédéric Chesnais, Atari; $1,124,870 (total compensation) and $562 (average hourly)
- Franck Sagnier, Codemasters; $1,267,155 (total compensation) and $633 (average hourly)
- Andrew Day, Keywords Studios; $1,299,104 (total compensation) and $649 (average hourly)
- Joshua Wilson, SciPlay; $1,635,171 (total compensation) and $817 (average hourly)
- Jürgen Stark, Turtle Beach; $2,275,770 (total compensation) and $1,137 (average hourly)
- Andrew Paul, privateer; $2,796,433 (total compensation) and $1,398 (average hourly)
- Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo; $2,839,072 (total compensation) and $1,419 (average hourly)
- Hajime Satomi, Sega; $2,949,168 (total compensation) and $1,474 (average hourly)
- Yosuke Matsuda, Square Enix; $4,169,594 (total compensation) and $2,084 (average hourly)
- Stephane Roussel, Gameloft; $3,673,362 (total compensation) and $1,836 (average hourly)
- Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, Modern Times Group; $4,309,571 (total compensation) and $2,873 (average hourly)
- David Baszucki, Roblox; $6,775,108 (total compensation) and $3,387 (average hourly)
- George Sherman, GameStop; $7,609,754 (total compensation) and $3,804 (average hourly)
- Owen Mahoney, Nexon; $8,311,079 (total compensation) and $4,155 (average hourly)
- Nick Earl, Glu Mobile; $8,633,871 (total compensation) and $4,316 (average hourly)
- Debbie Bestwick, team17; $10,242,642 (total compensation) and $5,121 (average hourly)
- Min-Liang Tan, Razer; $10,457,000 (total compensation) and $5,228 (average hourly)
- Taek-Jin Kim, NCsoft; $15,620,773 (total compensation) and $7,810 (average hourly)
- Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive; $18,111,761 (total compensation) and $9,055 (average hourly)
- John Riccitiello, Unity Software; $22,001,733 (total compensation) and $11,000 (average hourly)
- Franck Gibeau, Zynga; $32,003,768 (total compensation) and $16,001 (average hourly)
- Andrew Wilson, Electronic Arts; $34,715,802 (total compensation) and $17,357 (average hourly)
- Andrew Paradise, Skillz; $103,321,052 (total compensation) and $51,660 (average hourly)
- Robert Kotick, Activision Blizzard; $154,613,318 (total compensation) and $77,306 (average hourly)
- Robert Antokol, Playtika; $372,008,176 (total compensation) and $186,004 (average hourly)
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