Nintendo released annual salary figures for its executives in financial reporting and fans now have a definitive figure for how much Shigeru Miyamoto makes.
Anyone who’s ever played Mario or Donkey Kong has Miyamoto to thank. He’s widely regarded as the most influential figure in modern video game history. Given Nintendo’s success with the Nintendo Switch and the steady stream of commercially and critically successful games, fans might expect him to be swimming in cash.
But while Miyamoto’s certainly not poor, he’s also not making nearly as much as many of his peers. Nintendo confirmed just how much Miyamoto and CEO Shuntaro Furukawa make to shareholders.
How much does Nintendo pay Shigeru Miyamoto?
Nintendo stated in financial reports that it paid Shigeru Miyamoto roughly $1.8 million in its previous fiscal year.
Miyamoto’s pay was broken down, with the report stating he has a base pay of approximately $447,000 per year, with additional performance pay. That “performance-based compensation” made up $1.3 million of his pay. Alongside this, he received $37,000 in “restricted stock compensation.” Estimates for Shigeru Miyamoto’s net worth vary wildly, falling between $20 million and $40 million.
Given Miyamoto’s outsized influence in the gaming sphere, Nintendo fans will likely say that this salary is deserved. Since the start of his tenure in 1977, Miyamoto has produced almost 90 games and created some of the most iconic characters in video game history, ranging from Mario and Luigi to Link and Zelda.
Other games that Miyamoto had a hand in creating include Metroid Prime, Pokemon Red and Blue, Kirby, and many more. If Nintendo made it, then it’s likely that Miyamoto helped in some way. However, since 2015 his main role has been as Nintendo’s executive fellow and a representative director.
Shigeru Miyamoto’s salary is radically smaller than many other gaming executives
Fans might be taken aback by Miyamoto making under $2 million per year. That’s because many of the gaming industry’s top executives make significantly more.
The most notorious example is Bobby Kotick. The former Activision CEO famously received over $150 million in 2020, just in bonus pay.
Though Kotick is a CEO while Miyamoto is in the marketing and development end of Nintendo, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa still only made $2.2 million per the corporate site. Nintendo’s comparatively low executive pay has been praised by many in the industry for creating less of a financial across the company. Nintendo’s financial statements and the current state of Activision Blizzard show that in action.