How Games Workshop's Warhammer grew into a £6bn British business

Games Workshop, maker of the tabletop game Warhammer, is now valued at about £6bn and is one of Britain’s biggest companies, nearly ubiquitous on high streets and listed in the FTSE 100. The business reported a 10.9% rise in revenues over the past six months, which the company attributes to soaring worldwide demand for its plastic models.

The firm began in 1975 as a mail-order board games company run by three friends from their flat and was co-founded by Sir Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake; the co‑founders sold their shares in 1991. “Games Workshop was founded by gamers for gamers,” Livingstone said, and he described the hobby as an experience with expert staff, in‑store advice and free models for visitors to paint.

Livingstone also cited celebrity fans such as Henry Cavill, who is slated to star in an Amazon-produced Warhammer film and TV series, alongside other famous supporters like Ed Sheeran and Vin Diesel. Collectors build and paint detailed miniature models — some costing more than £100 and made from hundreds of pieces — to play tabletop battles or display creative conversions.

The company benefits from a loyal customer base, high product quality, a vertically integrated supply chain and decades of defended intellectual property; the business has also pledged to invest in artists rather than AI, the report said. Analysts and historians attribute Games Workshop’s rise to smart business decisions and global expansion.

Key Topics

Business, Games Workshop, Warhammer, Ian Livingstone, Henry Cavill, Warhammer World