With the holidays approaching and a ton of big-name games coming out, our wallets are taking quite the hit. With money and gaming on the mind, we thought we’d look back on some of our favorite characters who probably wouldn’t have this problem.

In no particular order, here’s our list of the wealthiest video game characters...

1. Mario - Super Mario Bros.

Mario has been obsessively hoarding coins for three decades, across more than 19 major Super Mario games. But let me ask you this - how often do you actually see Mario spend any of these coins he’s collecting? Where are they all going? Even in Super Mario Galaxy, the Lumas insist on being paid in Star Bits, letting Mario keep all those sweet, sweet golden coins for himself.

He’s supposedly a plumber by trade, but he seems to spend all his time getting friendly with Mushroom Kingdom royalty instead. A perk for the rich, or true love? We may never know.

2. Michael De Santa - Grand Theft Auto 5
“You can't buy love, so here's a down payment.”


Michael was born into poverty, went from being a small-time crook to a prolific bank robber, and decided to retire after the FIB promised to pay him enough per month to live a luxurious life in what is basically Beverly Hills. He’s basically got it made, and yet his self-pitying behavior and bad habits get in the way of having as rich of a family life. Add to that a pair of ungrateful kids, an unhappy wife tired of his indifference, one midlife crisis, and a few betrayed friends to the mix, and you have probably one of the biggest scumbag rich dudes in video game history.

He might not be a tyrannical mastermind like some of the people on this list, but he’s also not on the list of Cool Rich People You’d Want To Hang Out With.

3. Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

“A famous explorer once said, that the extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are.”

It’s safe to say that most kids born into an old-money aristocratic British family - her dad is named Lord Henshingly Croft for pete’s sake - would not turn out the way that Lara Croft turned out. Despite being unfathomably wealthy, Croft spends more time traveling the world finding dinosaurs to murder than admiring genteel dress or fine dining.

It’s worth pointing out that Tomb Raider has been rebooted a couple times, and the modern Lara Croft is merely filthy rich, not literally-a-minor-British-royal rich. But still.

For more on Lara Croft's adventures, don't miss our review of Rise of the Tomb Raider.

4. Tom Nook - Animal Crossing
"I'll be there with bells on! Ho ho!"


Tom Nook is the shady loan shark in the otherwise-friendly world of Animal Crossing. “You owe me 39,800 bells for this house. Oh wait, did I say 39,800? I meant 643,800… assuming you’re OK with just a couple rooms. You want a basement, or a kitchen, or a back room? You better believe that’ll cost you. But don’t worry! You can just come work for me!”

This guy gets millions of bells from players, sells essential goods in the General Store, and in New Leaf he doesn’t even run the place, instead employing his nephews in some kind of child labor scheme. But hey… gotta make dem bells, rights?

5. Handsome Jack - Borderlands 2
“Hey kids, do you know what your mommies and daddies gave up to live here in Opportunity? Literally nothing! You're paid to be here! I provide all the food and protection you need. Remember, we should all love our parents, but love me more.”


Some characters on this list are rich in the sense that they have a big house or fancy gear. But Handsome Jack? He has a moon base. And runs a massive weapons manufacturing corporation on a world that basically runs on weapons. So yeah… he’s doing pretty well for himself. But it just goes to show you that money can’t buy happiness. Or a proper face, apparently?

6. Snake - Metal Gear Solid 5
“We'll make diamonds from their ashes.”


The war economy pays out. With a base of operations basically gifted to Diamond Dogs by the Seychelles government and most of its assets (including soldiers) stolen by giant military balloons, Snake’s Mother Base in The Phantom Pain probably started turning a profit pretty quick. As a private army with no allegiance to one country, Diamond Dogs are rich in another type of currency: Gross Military Product. It’s safe to say that with the amount of equipment and research housed on Mother Base, and nuclear capabilities on top of it, Snake’s base of operations is probably worth a lot in cold hard cash, too… no matter what country you’re from.

7. Cave Johnson - Portal 2
“Who is ready to make some science?”


Cave Johnson was a renowned scientist and founder of Aperture Science, an experimental physics lab with enough research and power to rival even the accomplishments of Black Mesa, but he didn’t get rich perfecting portal physics… actually, it was after the U.S. military decided to use the shower curtains manufactured by his first company, Aperture Fixtures, that Johnson really struck it big.

But despite his sense of humor and fine philosophical ramblings about lemons, Johnson wasn’t really a good dude, either. While Aperture did create some pretty awesome stuff, Johnson also conducted plenty of weird experiments that often failed, let countless test subjects and even his own employees die, and basically forced his highly respected secretary into becoming a computer. Oh yeah, and he died from inhaling moon rocks? I guess money can’t cure everything.

8. Andrew Ryan - Bioshock
“I am Andrew Ryan, and I am here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?”



Andrew Ryan shares more than just his initials with Ayn Rand. The guy rejected absolutely the idea that one’s accomplishments belong to anyone else but the one who worked for it. And what did Ryan work for? Rapture: a massive deep sea city away from the “socialist parasites” of the world above, where objectivism could thrive no matter what its residents’ field or fancy. Ryan had to have a lot of money to build it and to fill it with the best and brightest, but it was partially due to the massively disproportionate upper class in Ryan’s dream society that it all fell apart in the end.

I wonder what Ken Levine thinks about Ayn Rand?

9. Oswell Spencer - Resident Evil
“I was to become a god!”


Oswell Spencer was more than just a rich guy in a big house. He was also an evil pharmaceutical tycoon and biological weapons manufacturer who had his mansion specially built to hide an underground organic engineering research laboratory belonging to the Umbrella Corporation. He had enough cash to rig his estate with all kinds of weird traps and puzzles, he bought an entire island for top secret bio organic weapons research, and he spent his final days in his humble family estate… a giant European castle. Which also housed an underground lab. Because why not?