Alex Dudov
Not many people can say they turned a childhood gaming habit into a multimillion-dollar company. Richard "FaZe Banks" Bengtson is one of them. If you're asking who is the CEO of FaZe, the answer is a guy who grew up in small-town Massachusetts, got handed a Nintendo 64 by his dad, and spent the next two decades turning that obsession into one of the most recognized brands in esports. No shortcuts. A lot of detours. But here he is.
FaZe Banks: First Job, First Dollar, First Break
Richard Bengtson was born on October 18, 1991, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. When he was seven, the family moved to Lowell, Florida. He graduated from Lowell High School in 2010 with no particular plan - just a genuine love for gaming that never felt like a hobby, more like a calling.
After high school, he relocated to Miami and did what most people thought was a waste of time back then: he started posting gaming videos on YouTube. In September 2011, he launched his channel under the name "BanksHasBank." His very first video, The Single Greatest SoaRing In Style, went up on October 5, 2011. There was no salary, no studio, no sponsorship. Just raw Call of Duty footage and a personality people actually wanted to watch. That was his first dollar - ad revenue from content he made in his bedroom.
FaZe Clan Career: How Banks Went From Player to Power
In 2013, Banks joined FaZe Clan while still living in Miami and quickly became one of its defining figures. He was not just gaming - he was building. Together with Thomas "FaZe Temperrr" Oliveira, he set up the first FaZe shared house in Plainview, New York in 2014. That was a genuinely new idea at the time: get a group of creators under one roof, let them feed off each other's energy, and watch the content multiply. The influencer house format that's everywhere now? Banks helped pioneer it.
His YouTube numbers tell the story clearly. He crossed 1 million subscribers in November 2016. By August 2017 he was at 2 million, hit 3 million a few weeks after that, and reached 4 million by November 2017. The channel racked up 100 million total views by late 2017 - a figure that tripled within a year. During this run, FaZe Clan landed brand deals with Nike, Reebok, Champion, G Fuel, Nissan, and Verizon. Banks was at the center of all of it as Chief Operating Officer.
Who Is the CEO of FaZe - and How Did Banks Get Back to the Top?
The leadership history of FaZe is anything but simple. Lee Trink served as CEO from fall 2018 until the board fired him in September 2023. Christoph Pachler stepped in as interim CEO. Then GameSquare Holdings acquired FaZe Clan in early 2024 in an all-stock deal worth roughly $16 million - and that changed everything. The founders were brought back in. Bengtson was named CEO of the FaZe Clan brand, Oliveira became President, and Yousef "FaZe Apex" Abdelfattah took the COO role.
In May 2024, Banks was also installed as CEO of FaZe Media, a new creator-focused spinoff that raised $11 million from Matt Kalish, co-founder of DraftKings, in exchange for a 49% stake. By April 2025, GameSquare had fully divested its remaining 25.5% in FaZe Media, handing full control back to the founders. As of 2025, who is the CEO of FaZe comes down to one name: Banks. His net worth reflects the full arc - estimated between $13 and $18 million, built through YouTube revenue, equity, and over a decade of brand partnerships.
FaZe Banks Net Worth in 2025: Where Things Stand
Banks now has 5.1 million YouTube subscribers, 411 million channel views, and 2.9 million Instagram followers. For context: during the NASDAQ era, FaZe once carried a reported valuation of $725 million. Shares later collapsed to 16 cents. What Banks is doing now is a deliberate return to what worked - content, creators, community. Less corporate, more real. His annual income from YouTube alone is estimated at around $120,000, with the bulk of his wealth tied to FaZe equity and ongoing brand deals.
FaZe Banks on How to Actually Build Something That Lasts
Banks has never been one for polished motivational content, but over years of vlogs and interviews, a consistent worldview has come through. He is open about mental health struggles - including correcting a widely shared story about Adderall that he had initially overstated. His take is blunt: performing like everything is fine is a short-term strategy that always backfires eventually.
His core ideas on building something real keep coming back to the same themes: be genuinely yourself rather than a calculated version of what you think the audience wants; create shared environments where collaboration happens naturally; think in ownership, not just paychecks; stay close to what made you relevant in the first place; and when things fall apart - and they will - treat it as a reset, not a dead end. FaZe's 2024 reboot under his leadership was that philosophy put into practice.
Alex Dudov
