The CEO of Wargaming, the company behind World of Tanks, is now in the billionaire club.
Free2Play is worthwhile. As Bloomberg reports, Viktor Kislyi’s (39) net worth has now reached one billion US dollars.
Kislyi himself has not commented on this figure, but told Bloomberg that he lives a “very modest” lifestyle and is not someone who sticks a number to his wealth. Wargaming itself is valued at 1.5 billion US dollars. Kislyi directly owns 64% of the company, and his father holds another 25.5%.
Civilization almost ruined his studies
Kislyi hails from Minsk. In the late 80s, as the Soviet Union slowly dissolved and capitalism spread among young Russians, Kislyi began his physics studies. The idea for World of Tanks stemmed from a lifelong passion for strategy games and history, as he was a huge fan of the Civilization released in 1991 and missed quite a few university lectures because of it.
Eventually, Kislyi entered the gaming industry. In 1998, he founded Wargaming. It took 12 years with many ups and downs for the company to achieve one of the major Free2Play hits of our time with World of Tanks in 2010.
This video summarizes Gamespot’s rise of Wargaming over these 12 years – like most success stories, it is not a straight path upwards, but there are twists and side paths and sometimes you just get outrageously lucky when Yahoo buys a company in which you hold shares for an insane amount of money:
Meanwhile, Wargaming employs 4000 people across four continents. The main game World of Tanks has over 400 tanks. Especially in the Eastern Bloc, the “World War II scenario” is wildly popular.
Interested in the game? Visit the official website and play World of Tanks for free (Advertisement).
