George RR Martin Net Worth 2024: Thrones and Dragons Netted $200 Million

George Raymond Richard Martin is an American author, television producer, and television writer.

Martin, famously known as George RR Martin or G.R.R.M, is best known for his work on the epic fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, which later turned into the TV series Game of Thrones.

In 2024, thanks to his brilliant career as author and producer, George RR Martin’s net worth has reached over $200 million.

For nearly two decades now, Martin has been recognized as America’s Tolkien, but his authorship isn’t the only thing contributing to his immense fortune.

If you’re interested in learning more about the career and story of the famous George Raymond Richard Martin, keep reading.

George RR Martin’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown

George RR Martin’s estimated net worth is based on his earnings from the Game of Thrones series, his book sales, HBO deal, as well as other assets and sources of income he’s had over the years.

Even though most sources online list a net worth of $120 million, we’ve learned that he has earned this sum just from the Game of Thrones series to date, and it doesn’t include his book sales, which reached an average of $10 million per year when the Game of Thrones series was still running on TV.

Based on our research, George RR Martin is most likely worth at least $200 million.

Here’s a breakdown of his main assets and income sources:

6 Interesting Facts About George RR Martin

1. Early Life: Born on September 20, 1948, in New Jersey.
2. First Story Sale: Sold his first professional story, “The Hero,” in 1971.
3. Writing Style: Known for his intricate plots and deep character development.
4. Inspirations: Inspired by historical events like the Wars of the Roses.
5. Personal Life: Married to Parris McBride since 2011.
6. Recent Work: Involved in multiple “Game of Thrones” spinoffs.

Latest News & Controversies

George R.R. Martin has been in the spotlight recently.

One of the major topics is his stance on artificial intelligence. Martin, along with several other authors, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2023, accusing the company of using their work without permission to train AI models like ChatGPT. Despite his criticism, Martin acknowledges that AI is here to stay but insists on the need for regulations to ensure authors have control over how their works are used and are properly compensated.

The case continues to develop as more companies like Microsoft have been named in the lawsuit.

In addition to the AI controversy, Martin expressed his disappointment over the cancellation of Amazon Prime’s series My Lady Jane. A fan of historical alternate realities, Martin shared his frustration, noting that the show deserved more than the eight episodes it received before being canceled. He even supported a petition to bring it back​.

On a positive note, Martin is involved in several TV projects, including the continued development of House of the Dragon and other spinoffs of Game of Thrones. His work on these projects ensures that his influence in both literature and television remains strong in 2024​

Early Life and Education

George Raymond Martin was born on September 20, 1948, in New Jersey.

When he was 13 years old, he was given a confirmation name Richard, which made his full name what it is today – George Raymond Richard Martin.

His mother’s family was initially wealthy, but they lost everything during the Great Depression, a story he was told repeatedly as a child and the one that inspired Game of Thrones. His father was a longshoreman and his mother worked in a factory in Bayonne called the Maidenform factory.

Martin had two younger sisters and he and his family lived in a federal housing project on First Street. They initially lived in a house on Broadway which belonged to his great-grandmother, but chose to relocate in 1953.

#TBT back when I was just a sweet summer child. pic.twitter.com/4L02yufpju

— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) August 31, 2017

He completed his primary education on Fifth Street, sharing the following about this period of his life, “I went to school on Fifth Street, and that was pretty much my world, from First Street to Fifth Street, except in my imagination, because I was a voracious reader of books and science fiction books and fantasy books, and all of that stuff.”

When he was a child, Martin’s family was struggling financially.

He proceeded to say:

We didn’t even own a car, so we never went anywhere. Maybe once a year we would go to New York City to see a show at Radio City Music Hall or something like that. But, mostly Bayonne was the only world I knew, except for the world of imagination.

Growing up, George Raymond Richard Martin was an avid reader and an excellent storyteller. As a child, he sold monster stories to other kids, earning pennies per story, but selling them nonetheless. He wrote stories about mythical kingdoms that were populated by pet turtles and started endless stories that he never really completed.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School, followed by his time at Marist High School. By the time he reached high school, he was a comic book fan, impressed by Stan Lee’s Marvel stories.

He even had a fan letter printed in Fantastic Four’s issue and won a fan fiction contest during this period.

Through contact with other fans, Martin joined the comics fandom, writing for various fanzines, and used the money to buy his first tickets to the world’s first Comic-Con, which took place in 1964 in New York.

A year later, he won the comic fandom’s Alley Award for Best Fan Fiction for his superhero story Powerman vs. The Blue Barrier.

In 1970, Martin earned his B.S. in Journalism, minoring in history at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He graduated summa cum laude and went on to complete a Master’s degree in Journalism in 1971 from the same school.

After his graduation, he was drafted during the Vietnam War, but avoided military service and chose to do alternate service instead. He was a VISTA volunteer, working for the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation between 1972 and 1974.

Personal Life

In 1975, George RR Martin married Gale Burnick, but the couple divorced four years later. In 2011, he married Parris McBride after a lengthy relationship, and he currently lives with her in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have no children.

In the early 70s, the author was in a relationship with Lisa Tuttle, with whom he co-wrote his book Windhaven.

George RR Martin Net Worth: The Authorship Career That Led Him to Game of Thrones

The same year he obtained his Master’s degree, George RR Martin published his first professional sci-fi short story. At this time, Martin taught writing at Clark University and ran chess tournaments.

When one of Martin’s closest friends, Tom Reamy, died in 1977, Martin decided to move to Santa Fe in New Mexico and focus on his writing.

Let’s take a closer look at how his career progressed over time.

Early Career Days

Martin started selling his science fiction short stories in 1970 when he was only 21 years old. The first story he sold was titled The Hero. Galaxy magazine acquired it and published it in its February 1971 issue.

Following the success of this short story, Martin kept writing and selling his pieces successfully. The first of his stories to be nominated for the Nebula and Hugo Awards was With Morning Comes Mistfall, which was published in Analog magazine in 1973.

Two years later, Martin’s story titled For a Single Yesterday was selected for inclusion in a science fiction anthology called Epoch, which Robert Silverberg and Roger Elwood edited.

Teaching and Chess

Even though his short stories sold well, the profits he earned weren’t enough to cover his living expenses, which is why Martin had to keep working.

With this, he decided to work as a tournament director for the Continental Chess Association, organizing chess tournaments.

This boosted his income significantly and allowed him to work as a writer at the same time, seeing as how the tournaments only took place on weekends.

In the mid-1970s, the young writer met English professor George Guthridge at a science fiction convention they both attended in Milwaukee. Martin persuaded Guthridge to start writing speculative fiction, which led him to become the finalist for the Nebula Award and Hugo Award for science fiction.

In return, Guthridge helped George Martin get an additional job that would boost his income. Martin taught writing and journalism at Clark University, where he remained for a total of three years before he decided to become a full-time writer.

Between 1976 and 1978, Martin was the university’s English and Journalism instructor, and in 1978, he became their Writer in Residence.

Becoming a Full-Time Writer

Martin wrote his first novel in 1976 before he left Clark. The novel was titled Dying of the Light, and he published it in 1977. That same year, he sold the novel with great success, making three times his teaching salary in a single year.

While he loved teaching, the sudden death of Tom Reamy, his friend and fellow author in 1977, made Martin switch to a career as a full-time writer and resign from his job at the school. He subsequently moved from Dubuque to Santa Fe in New Mexico, where he spent three years living alone. He describes this period of his life as very productive in terms of his writing.

In 1976, Martin and his friend Gardner Dozois, both authors, organized the first Hugo Losers’ Party at the Kansas City MidAmeriCon’s 34th World Science Fiction Convention, to benefit the Hugo-losing writers following the Hugo Awards ceremony. That same year, Martin had two nominations for Hugo Awards for the novelette Seven Times Never Kill Man and The Storms of Windhaven.

At about this time, Star Wars totally dominated the literary genre, and critics would often say that you couldn’t mix horror and sci-fi in a single novel. However, Martin decided to disprove them and wrote a series of books that combined the two genres, including:

• Sandkings (1979)
• Nightflyers (1980) – which resulted in the first film adaptation of the 1987 film Nightflyers, co-written by Martin

Some other books and stories that marked the beginning of Martin’s highly successful career included:

• The Runners (short story, 1975)
• The Thousand Worlds (informal title for a collection of sci-fi stories, also known as The Manrealm)
• Fevre Dream (vampire novel, 1982)
• The Armageddon Rag (mystery/fantasy novel, 1983)

Struggling Period and Comeback

Fevre Dream, a vampire novel set in the 19th century, revolved around a unique species related to humans and was considered one of the “greatest vampire novels of all time”, according to critic Don D’Amassa.

This success, combined with other book sales, led to Martin getting a bigger advance for his next book.

The Armageddon Rag was the author’s biggest setback to date. This was his fourth novel and, while it got Martin “the biggest advance” at the time from Poseidon Press, the book didn’t sell well. He said:

My publishers were certain it would be my first best-seller, and nobody bought it. Instead of taking me to the next level, it almost destroyed my career.

This led to a period when Martin was no longer able to sell his novels and was reportedly even considering selling his house.

The setback from his fourth novel kept the author from writing a new novel for over a decade.

In 1984, Betsy Mitchell, the then-editor of Baen Books, asked him to do a collection of Haviland Tuf adventures, but Martin was too occupied with his new novel, Black and White and Red All Over (which he never completed, unfortunately).

Martin accepted Mitchell’s offer to write a few more Tuf stories, collected in Tuf Voyaging since he couldn’t get other work published.

Tuf Voyaging sold well, so Mitchell suggested a sequel and asked Martin to write it. However, when producer Philip DeGuere Jr. optioned his novel for a movie a few years later, he quit the Tuf project. While the TV adaptation never became a reality, DeGuere Jr. hired Martin as a writer for the reboot of The Twilight Zone, for which he wrote five episodes starting in 1986.

Since working for TV paid much more than writing literature, Martin chose to move to Hollywood in search of a new career. He eventually worked as a staff writer for The Twilight Zone and was later promoted to executive story consultant.

When the series was canceled, Martin moved over to the satirical science fiction series Max Headroom, where he worked on scripts and created the Ped Xing character.

However, this show was also canceled in the middle of the second season, so Martin’s scripts never went into production.

In 1989, Martin became the writer-producer of the fantasy series Beauty and the Beast, followed by his role of co-supervising producer of the show. He wrote a total of 14 of this show’s episodes.

Success with Wild Cards

In this period, Martin was obsessed with role-playing games, so he became the editor for a book series titled Wild Cards. He published a collection of short horror stories in the magazine Portraits of His Children and oversaw the development of the Wild Cards book series.

Starting from 2011, 21 Wild Cards volumes have been published and Martin signed a contract for the show’s 22nd volume titled Low Ball, which was published by Tor Books in 2014. A year later, he signed his next Tor contract for the volume High Stakes, which was released in 2016.

In 2016, the author announced that Universal Cable Productions bought the rights to adapt the series into a television series, but shared that he wouldn’t write for the adaptation.

A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones

By 1991, George Martin decided to return to writing novels.

He was frustrated that his screenplays weren’t getting made, and the limitations related to TV production forced him to trim scenes and cut characters. He got back to writing books, where his imagination didn’t have to be compromised.

“Books were really my first love. I kind of missed doing them anyway. There’s a freedom there that you don’t get in Hollywood. There’s a full canvas to paint on so you don’t have to worry about compromising: having to fight with directors or networks or studios. But the real telling thing was that, although I was making a lot of money in Hollywood writing these screenplays and developing the pilots, they weren’t getting made and it was just ultimately unsatisfying,” he stated.

Inspired by literary works like Wars of the Roses, Ivanhoe, and The Accursed King, Martin decided to write an epic fantasy series spread across three volumes. His work developed and is currently slated to include seven volumes due to the impressive popularity of the A Song of Fire and Ice series.

The Ice and Fire series started with A Game of Thrones, first published in 1996. A Game of Thrones turned out to be just the first of many books in the Ice and Fire series, including:

• A Clash of Kings (1998)
• A Storm of Swords (2000)
• A Feast for Crows (2005)
• A Dance with Dragons (2011)
• The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)

The books have been a tremendous success, especially since the TV adaptation into the HBO series Game of Thrones. The fourth novel in the series, A Feast for Crows, was the first to become a New York Times no. 1 bestseller.

Fun fact: The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, was an international bestseller that remained on the New York Times list for 88 weeks in total!

In 2012, this same book made the final ballot for the Hugo Award, Locus Poll Award, World Fantasy Award, and other prestigious awards. It went on to win the Locus Poll Award for best fantasy novel.

Novellas Linked to the Ice and Fire Series

In addition to his world-famous Ice and Fire series, Martin has written several prequel novellas and even a prequel series. This includes the Tales of Dunk and Egg series, which comprises three novellas set 90 years before the event of the novel series, talking of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire.

This series includes:

• The Hedge Knight (1998)
• The Sworn Sword (2003)
• The Mystery Knight (2010)

Martin has also written a complete history of House Targaryen as part of his Fire & Blood (2018) series, to be released in two volumes total.

Some other stories/novellas linked to the famous series include:

• The Princess and the Queen, or the Blacks and the Greens (2013)
• The Rogue Prince or, a King’s Brother (2014)
• The Sons of the Dragon (2017)

TV Adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire

In 2007, HBO Productions acquired the television rights for the series.

At the time, Martin was heavily involved in the production of the TV series adaptation of his books, with the original pilot being shot in October and November 2009 in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Morocco.

However, the pilot was received poorly by HBO executives, and it took them four months to greenlight the series.

Finally, in March 2010, HBO decided to schedule the production of the series, starting from June of that same year. They requested that the pilot episode be reshot with the scenes from Morocco entirely scraped.

The first episode of the first season of Game of Thrones, titled Winter is Coming, premiered on HBO in the US and Canada in April 2011 and was initially seen by 2.2 million people. It was a smash hit right off the bat.

The first season of Game of Thrones was eventually nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and won two.

Only two days after the premiere, HBO ordered a second season of Game of Thrones, which came with a 15% increase in budget, most of which was used for the Battle of the Blackwater scene. The second season premiered in the US in April 2012, concluding in June of the same year.

By the season’s finale, the viewership rose to 4.2 million. This season won six out of twelve Emmy Awards nominations.

At this point, Game of Thrones had tremendous critical acclaim and was a massive commercial success, so HBO renewed it for a third season in April 2012 with the production beginning in July of the same year. The third season is based on the first half of the novel A Storm of Swords.

Based on the few words Martin included in his novels, the linguist David J. Peterson constructed actual languages to be used in the series i.e. Valyrian and Dothraki languages. The third season concluded in June 2013 and was seen by 14.2 million people.

Game of Thrones soon became one of the most-watched series in the world. With the fourth season, Game of Thrones became the most-watched HBO series in history, surpassing the fourth season of The Sopranos.

Based on this success, new seasons kept showing on the small screen, including:

• The fourth season, adapted from the second half of A Storm of Swords with elements of A Dance with Dragons and A Feast for Crows.
• The fifth season, adapted from A Dance with Dragons and A Feast for Crows. This season holds the Guinness World Record for winning the highest number of Emmy Awards in a single year, having won 12 out of 24 nominations.
• The sixth season, adapted from content that was yet to be published in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, as well as content from A Dance with Dragons, A Feast for Crows, and The Winds of Winter. This season also won 12 Emmy Awards.
• The seventh season, using original content not found in the source material.
• The eighth season, using original content not found in the source material, consisted of only six episodes but with a longer runtime of an episode. This season received 32 Emmy Award nominations, the most for a single season of a TV series. It won twelve, as well.

Notably, critics and many fans of the show disliked the seventh and especially the 8th seasons of the show, arguing that the shows writers struggled immensely without George RR Martin’s source material to go off of.

Other Game of Thrones TV Adaptations

Three years after the famous Game of Thrones series came to an end, HBO released a prequel series titled House of the Dragon in 2022. This series was based partly on the novel Fire & Blood, sharing historical events from a time 200 years before the event of Game of Thrones.

The series was renewed for a second season by HBO a few days after its premiere and began broadcast in June 2024.

In June 2022, media outlets reported that a Jon Snow sequel series was in early development at HBO, which would be titled Snow. Martin also confirmed his involvement with the project, and so did Kit Harington. However, the Jon Snow spinoff of Game of Thrones is reportedly not in active development at this point.

What Did Martin Earn from Game of Thrones?

Martin earned $15 million per season of Game of Thrones from HBO, which means that this series adaptation alone brought him $120 million, with the potential to earn more from future spin-offs.

In addition to this sum, Martin earned around $10 million annually from book sales when the series was airing, though we don’t know the exact total. To date, Martin’s novels have sold 90 million copies since the original publication of A Game of Thrones.

As for his earnings from other book sales and film adaptations, the details have not been publicly disclosed.

What Else Does George RR Martin Invest In?

RR Martin is known to live quite a modest life.

He is a long-time resident of Santa Fe, where he helped fund Meow Wolf, owns at least two businesses, and lives with his wife McBride. His assets include modest homes, but he has also been investing in businesses as well as earning money as a television producer.

Let’s take a look at what else makes Martin’s net worth.

Philanthropy

Martin and McBride are supporters of the New Mexico Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary.

In 2014, they launched a Prizeo campaign to raise funds for the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and the Food Depot of Santa Fe.

He offered one donor several incentives, including the chance to come with him on a trip to the sanctuary, including a dinner and helicopter ride, and offered people who donated over $20,000 the opportunity to have a character named after them – and killed off – in the Song of Ice and Fire series.

The campaign raised over half a million dollars.

In 2017, the famous Game of Thrones author announced that he was funding the Miskatonic Scholarship, which allows a writer to attend the Odyssey Writing Workshop, held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester.

Last but not least, Martin is a supporter of Meow Wolf, an arts collective in Santa Fe. He has pledged $2.7 million toward its new art space in 2015.

Awards and Honors

In 2005, back when Martin was writing novels and short stories and hadn’t started working on Game of Thrones, he was given the title “America’s Tolkien” by Lev Grossman of Time.

In 2011, he was included in the annual Time 100 list of most influential people in the world.

In addition to these accolades, the author has won numerous awards for his work over the years. Some other awards he has won or been nominated over the years include:

• Balrog Award for Best Fantasy Novel for The Armageddon Rag in 1983
• Howard World Fantasy Award finalist in 1982 and 1983
• SF Site Readers’ Choice (no.1) for Best SF and Fantasy Books (2000)
• Ignotus Award for Best Foreign Novel (2002)
• Hugo Award and Locus Award nomination for Best Novel for A Feast for Crows (2006)
• Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel for A Dance with Dragons (2012)
• Best Science Fiction Short award for Night of the Cooters at the Midwest Weirdfest Festival in Wisconsin (2023)

Back in March, we showed our short film NIGHT OF THE COOTERS at the Midwest Weirdfest festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and won the award for Best Science Fiction Short…https://t.co/JZkxnESS0C pic.twitter.com/dkkkpkqUjy

— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) October 18, 2023

Investments

2013 Martin bought the Jean Cocteau Cinema and Coffee House in Santa Fe, which had been closed since 2006. He then restored the property and reopened it for business in 2013.

In 2019, the author opened a bookstore named after Beauty and the Beast, called Beastly Books, right next to Jean Cocteau.

Work as a Television Producer

In 2017, Martin announced that he would serve as the executive producer of the HBO TV series adaptation of Who Fears Death, a fantasy novel written by Nnedi Okorafor.

Four years later, Martin partnered with Kalinda Vasquez to develop a TV adaptation of Roadmarks, which Martin pitched to HBO in 2020. For this project, Martin served as a co-executive producer alongside the showrunner Vasquez.

That same year, in March 2021, Martin signed a five-year deal with HBO, though the financial details haven’t been publicly disclosed. According to Hollywood Reporter, the deal is worth mid-eight figures.

Martin is an executive producer of the Peacock TV adaptation of his Wild Cards book series, on which he works with Melinda M. Snodgrass and Vince Gerardis, his manager. The show is currently in its first season and started airing in 2024.

In 2021, the famous author was one of the producers of Night of the Cooters, a short film based on the short story by Howard Waldrop.

In 2022, he contributed to the hit video game Elden Ring by writing its worldbuilding aspects. He also served as an executive producer in the 2022 AMC series Dark Winds, which has two seasons to date and is based on Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee books.

Based on our findings, television production projects should add a significant sum to Martin’s net worth, but the details of exactly how much he earned from these projects remain unknown.

Assets

At one point, the media reported that Martin wanted to build a castle in his backyard, but Santa Fe shot him down. The city’s Historic Districts Review Board turned down his proposal to construct a seven-sided library in the backyard that would look like a castle.

“We thought it was Winterfell when we first saw the plans,” one of Martin’s neighbors shared. “All it’s missing is Jon Snow and a couple of dragons.”

George RR Martin and his wife reportedly bought the Camino Corrales property, the same where they planned to build the castle, in 2018 for $3 million.

What Can We Learn from George RR Martin’s Story?

George RR Martin has had an incredible life with countless accomplishments and many lessons to inspire and teach us.

Today, Martin is one of the greatest literary influences in the world, and his work is a global phenomenon both in the literary and entertainment industries.

Despite many setbacks and a truly challenging period, Martin didn’t give up on his passion for writing novels in the fantasy genre, which teaches us of the importance of perseverance and patience – as well as learning from your errors.

The famous author hasn’t been afraid to step out of his comfort zone and fight the misconceptions in the literary world.

This is evident in the period when Star Wars emerged as a huge trend worldwide, and Martin was one of the few to still combine horror and sci-fi. His passion for his ideas and belief in his talent is what ultimately led him to multimillionaire status – and made him one of the most famous authors in the world.

Despite his incredible wealth, Martin lives a very modest life.

This is evident from his modest homes and the fact that he and his wife aren’t known to spend their wealth excessively. They are more dedicated to philanthropy, such as their projects for the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, among other charitable causes.

This teaches us that one can leverage power, financial standing, and reputation for the good of society and the environment, and truly make a difference.