A Russian-born gaming mogul has been named the UK’s richest person under 40 — in a ranking dominated by tech entrepreneurs.
Dmitry Bukhman, 39, built his fortune after founding mobile gaming giant Playrix. His estimated wealth of £12.54bn tops The Sunday Times 40 Under 40 Rich List — and makes up over a third of its £36.2bn combined total. His net worth has nearly doubled since last year.
As a child in post-Soviet Russia, Bukman taught himself to code. Alongside his older brother Igor, he built his first game with an old Pentium PC given to them by their grandfather. After founding Playrix in 2004, the duo turned their focus to free-to-play mobile games.
Their biggest hits — including Homescapes, Fishdom, and Township — have come in the casual puzzle and simulation genres.
Most of their revenue derive from in-app purchases (IAP).
In 2024, Playrix was the world’s fourth-largest mobile game publisher by IAP revenue, generating around $1.66 billion. The company has also faced accusations of pay-to-win mechanics and misleading advertising.
The Bukhman brothers left Russia in 2016. They moved to Israel in 2016 and then relocated to the the UK four years later. In 2022, they shut down Playrix’s operations in their home country after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Bukhman is far from the only tech leader on the rich list — nearly half its members come from the sector.
Five of them join Bukhman in the top 10: Herman Narula, the CEO of virtual worlds business Improbable, Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham, the co-founders of insurtech firm Marshmallow, and Piotr Dabkowski and Mati Staniszewski, the co-founders of AI firm ElevenLabs.
The rankings are a subset of The Sunday Times Rich List, which profiles the UK’s 350 wealthiest people and families. Their combined wealth is estimated at £772.8bn — more than the annual GDP of Switzerland.
