Who owns Games Workshop?

Nobody owns Games Workshop outright. It is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange, so it belongs to whoever holds its 33 million shares. Its shares all carry equal votes, and none of the stock-market notices we read shows anyone near a controlling stake.

The holders named in the most recent notices are fund managers. In July 2026 BlackRock reported 5.00% of the votes, counting shares and financial instruments together, and Baillie Gifford reported just under 5%. The company is run from its head office in Nottingham by a board led by its chief executive, Kevin Rountree.

So the answer is the stock market, and the business is British, but no one person or family stands behind it.

What does the register show?

The company is Games Workshop Group PLC, company number 02670969, incorporated on 9 December 1991. Its registered office is 1 Willow Road, Nottingham, the Lenton site that is also its head office and factory.

Its register of persons with significant control does not name anyone. Companies House says the company has been exempt from keeping that register since 7 December 2018, because its voting shares are traded on a UK regulated market. That exemption applies to listed companies generally. It is not a sign that anything is hidden: listed companies disclose large holdings through stock-market notices instead.

On 1 October 2026 the company reported 33,045,370 ordinary shares of 5p each, with none held in treasury. Its annual report says it has one class of share, that every share carries one vote and that none carries special rights over control of the company. That is the difference from Fuller's, another listed company, where the founding families keep most of the votes through a separate class of share.

Who are the big shareholders?

A shareholder generally has to tell the company, and the company has to announce it, when a holding crosses 3% and each whole percentage point above that. Fund managers holding shares for clients are given wider steps, starting at 5%. The notices published since November 2025 show two names moving around that 5% line.

BlackRock, the US fund manager, filed five notices about crossing it between 29 May and 7 July 2026. Its latest notice, for 7 July 2026, gave 4.82% of the votes through shares and a further 0.18% through financial instruments, 5.00% in all.

Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh fund manager, reported 5.05% in November 2025 and 4.999% on 6 July 2026, which was 1,651,847 shares.

Both manage other people's money, so the shares are held for their clients' funds rather than as a stake in the business. These notices show only the holders that crossed a threshold in that period. They are not a full list of shareholders, and they do not show who holds the most: a fund that crossed 5% years ago and has stayed above it would not appear in them.

Who runs it?

The board has seven directors. Kevin Rountree has been chief executive since 1 January 2015; he joined in 1998 as an assistant group accountant. Liz Harrison is group finance director, and Neil Tomlinson became chief operating officer on 31 May 2026. The chair, Mark Lam, is non-executive and has held the role since 1 November 2024, a former chief technology and information officer of Openreach. The other non-executive directors are Randal Casson, Eric Maugein, who spent 20 years at the LEGO Group, and Nilufer Kheraj.

How did it get here?

The private equity firm ECI Partners says the business was founded in 1975 by "three game fanatics". They were Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake, who began by making wooden game boards in London.

ECI says it backed a management buyout led by Tom Kirby in 1991, the year the present company was incorporated, and that Games Workshop was floated on the stock market in 1994, when ECI sold out.

It was promoted to the FTSE 100 in December 2024. FTSE Russell's review of 4 December 2024 added it with effect from 23 December; the September 2026 review did not move it.

Does Amazon own Warhammer?

No. Games Workshop owns its Warhammer worlds and licenses them to other companies, chiefly for video games. On 10 December 2024 it announced that it had concluded negotiations with Amazon to adapt the Warhammer 40,000 universe into films and television series, with associated merchandising rights.

That is a licence. Games Workshop's results for the year to May 2026 say the contract stops it sharing some terms, that Amazon has brought in United Artists and the director Mike Flanagan, and that Henry Cavill remains involved. They also say the adaptations "will take years" to reach the market.

The one licence that runs the other way is The Lord of the Rings, which the company describes as its only licensed property.

How big is it?

The latest accounts cover the 52 weeks to 31 May 2026 and were filed at Companies House on 22 September 2026. Revenue was £659.7 million, up from £617.5 million. Of that, £626.8 million came from selling its own miniatures, books and games, and £32.9 million from licensing, down from £52.5 million the year before. Operating profit was £275.0 million.

The business is centrally run from Nottingham, but 79% of its core sales are made outside the UK. At the end of May 2026 it had 598 of its own shops in 24 countries, 134 of them in the UK, and sold to about 9,100 independent shops in 71 countries. It employs about 3,700 people.

Is Games Workshop independent?

Not in the sense we use. Our verified independent badge marks a locally and privately owned business, not a branch of a chain. A Warhammer shop is one of more than a hundred in the UK run by a listed company, so it is a branch, however small. The annual report says most of them are run by a single store manager.

The useful label is national chain, listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The independent shops that stock Warhammer are a different matter. Games Workshop sells to them on its own trade terms, but it does not own them. A local games shop that sells Warhammer alongside other games is still its owner's business, and that is the kind of shop our search is built to find. For the other big names on the toy shelf, see who owns the UK's toy retailers.

Questions people ask

Is Games Workshop British?

Yes. It is incorporated in England, its head office, design studio and factories are in Nottingham, and its shares are listed in London. Its shareholders include fund managers in other countries, as with most listed companies.

Who is the CEO of Games Workshop?

Kevin Rountree, chief executive since 1 January 2015.

Is Games Workshop on the stock market?

Yes, on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker GAW. It has been listed since 1994 and joined the FTSE 100 in December 2024.

Did Amazon buy Games Workshop?

No. Amazon has a licence to make Warhammer 40,000 films and television. None of the stock-market notices we read records Amazon as a shareholder.

Are Warhammer shops franchises?

No. The shops trading as Warhammer are the company's own. Independent shops that sell its products are separate businesses buying from it on trade terms.

Last checked 7 October 2026. This article uses the Companies House record for Games Workshop Group PLC (company 02670969): its overview, officer list, filing history and the persons-with-significant-control page, which gives the listed-company exemption from 7 December 2018; its group accounts for the 52 weeks to 31 May 2026, filed on 22 September 2026, read for the directors' report and the chair's statement; its results announcement of 28 July 2026; its total voting rights announcement of 1 October 2026; the major-holdings notices filed by BlackRock (29 May to 7 July 2026) and Baillie Gifford (7 November 2025 and 6 July 2026); FTSE Russell's index review announcements of 4 December 2024 and 2 September 2026; and ECI Partners' account of the 1991 buyout and 1994 flotation. The founders' names come from published histories of the company rather than a filing. What is not claimed: a full list of shareholders, who the single largest shareholder is, or anyone's holding below the reporting lines; the directors' own shareholdings; any shareholder's stake today, since holdings change daily and the notices give the position only on the day a threshold was crossed; the price ECI paid or received; the commercial terms of the Amazon agreement; and how the 598 shops split between one-person and larger stores, since the results give two different splits. If you spot something that needs correcting, email Highstreett and we will review it.