Raisin UK, an online banking service, has come up with a ranking of the highest earners in video games, including Grand Theft Auto V's Michael De Santa.
According to Raisin UK, Michael De Santa ranks second on the list with an annual income of £79,589 (or $110,464). Though initially living large off the spoils of his bank-robbing past, Michael takes a "legitimate" job later in the game as a film producer, using his criminal expertise to ensure that the films of Richards Majestic Productions go off without a hitch.
However, Michael didn't get the top spot on the list. That position was held by Handsome Jack, the perpetual thorn in the side of vault hunters in Borderlands 2. Given that Jack is the president of the Hyperion Corporation, a technological conglomerate that conquered the planet Pandora, it's not surprising he takes home a whopping £292,565 ($405,934). The third was Captain Alex Mason, a former Marine turned CIA-operative from the Black Ops subset of the Call of Duty franchise, whose annual earnings are £65,138 ($90,406).
Conversely, Raisin UK also covered the lowest earners in gaming. At the top (or bottom, as it were) is Geralt of Rivia, the eponymous protagonist of The Witcher series. Evidently being a wandering monster hunter isn't a lucrative venture, as Geralt takes home a detective's salary of £17,040 ($23,635). Just behind him is Ash Ketchum, the ten-year-old protagonist of Pokémon, who Raisin lists as a zookeeper and earns £18,658 ($25,882). The third lowest earner is Desmond Miles of the first Assassin's Creed trilogy, who covers up his top-secret high-tech assassin training by working as a bartender with an annual salary of £19,918 ($27,631).
Source: Raisin UK