Kate Winslet
Actress
Tony Hawk’s net worth is estimated at $140 million, making him the wealthiest professional skateboarder in history. Born Anthony Frank Hawk on May 12, 1968, in San Diego, California, Hawk transformed a niche subculture sport into a global industry through competitive dominance, entrepreneurship, and one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time.
Updated March 2026: According to Forbes, Hawk’s 1999 X Games 900 skateboard sold at auction for $1.15 million in September 2025, with proceeds benefiting The Skatepark Project. His net worth of $140 million reflects decades of video game royalties, brand ownership, and endorsement revenue accumulated since turning pro at age 14.
Tony Hawk was born in San Diego to Frank Peter Rupert Hawk, a U.S. Navy veteran who later became a Little League commissioner, and Nancy Hawk. The youngest of four children, Hawk was described by his parents as a hyperactive child with an IQ measured at 144. At age 9, his older brother Steve gave him a steel-wheeled Bahne skateboard, and within months Hawk was spending every available hour at the Oasis Skate Park in San Diego.
He attended Jean Farb Middle School and later Torrey Pines High School, graduating in 1986. By then, skateboarding had long since supplanted academics as his primary focus. Hawk began entering amateur competitions at age 11 and attracted his first sponsorship from Dogtown Skates before moving to Stacy Peralta’s Powell-Peralta team, where he turned professional at age 14 in 1982.
His early development coincided with the rise of vert skateboarding — ramp-based aerial skating — which suited his 6-foot-3 frame and fearless approach to aerial maneuvers. By the time he graduated high school, he had already been competing professionally for four years and had begun accumulating the contest wins that would define the first chapter of his career.
Between 1982 and 1999, Tony Hawk compiled one of the most dominant competitive records in action sports history. He won 73 of 103 professional contests he entered and claimed 12 world vertical skateboarding championships. By age 16, he was widely recognized as the best vert skater on the planet — a title he held without serious challenge for most of the 1980s.
In 1992, as interest in professional skateboarding contracted during one of the sport’s cyclical downturns, Hawk co-founded Birdhouse Skateboards with Per Welinder. The company grew slowly through the mid-1990s but accelerated sharply as skateboarding’s cultural profile rose again toward decade’s end, eventually generating annual revenues of approximately $25 million by the late 1990s.
On June 27, 1999, at the ESPN X Games Best Trick event in San Francisco, Hawk became the first skateboarder to land a 900 — two full aerial rotations — in competition. He attempted the trick 11 times before landing it, and the moment was captured on live television. It remains the most iconic individual achievement in skateboarding history. Hawk went on to win 10 gold medals at the X Games across his competitive career.
In 2025, Hawk continued skating at age 56, publicly documenting new trick attempts including an Oop-Cab-Monty in January 2026. He was named to TIME’s TIME100 Philanthropy list in 2025.
Hawk’s wealth derives from multiple converging revenue streams built over four decades, with video game royalties forming the single largest component:
Tony Hawk has been married four times. His first marriage was to Cindy Dunbar from 1990 to 1993; they have one son, Riley Hawk (born 1992), who became a professional skateboarder in his own right. His second marriage to Erin Lee lasted from 1996 to 2004; they have two sons, Spencer Hawk (born 1999) and Keegan Hawk (born 2001). His third marriage to Lhotse Merriam ran from 2006 to 2011; their daughter Kadence Clover Hawk was born in 2008. Hawk married his current wife, Cathy Goodman, in 2015.
Outside of skateboarding, Hawk is a longtime supporter of the San Diego Padres and has been associated with punk and ska music throughout his life. His philanthropic work centers on The Skatepark Project, a nonprofit he founded in 2002 that has helped fund and build over 660 public skateparks in underserved communities across the United States. The organization has distributed more than $13 million in grants since its founding.
Hawk shares the sports wealth conversation with athletes like LeBron James, whose business-driven $1 billion fortune parallels Hawk’s model of extending an athletic brand into lasting commercial enterprises. Other action sports and mainstream athletes who built business empires include Simone Biles and Shannon Sharpe.
Tony Hawk’s net worth is estimated at $140 million as of 2026. The bulk of his wealth was accumulated through royalties from the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game franchise, which generated over $1.4 billion in total revenue, combined with income from Birdhouse Skateboards, endorsements, and long-term licensing deals.
Hawk’s primary wealth driver was his royalty arrangement with Activision for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game series, negotiated instead of accepting a $500,000 flat fee. The franchise’s commercial success — over $1.4 billion in revenue — delivered multi-million-dollar royalty payments, with Hawk publicly citing a $4 million check from the fourth game alone. Birdhouse Skateboards and a decades-long portfolio of endorsement deals contributed additional significant income.
Yes. As of early 2026, Hawk continues to skate actively at age 57. In January 2026, he documented attempting new technical tricks including an Oop-Cab-Monty. He also returned to competitive attention in 2025 with the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 and the auction of his historic 900 skateboard for $1.15 million.