Esports have come a long way in society. While in the past, this industry only existed in dimly lit arcades, it has since spread across the globe with professional gaming leagues and major tournaments now in evidence in every country in the world. Naturally, this has led to some professional players becoming very wealthy from tournament winnings, sponsorships, and even team salaries.
While the industry has faced countless doubters, the rise of esports has been on full throttle. It’s impossible to deny that this industry is growing larger every year, impacting the market share of regular sports. In fact, the best athletes within esports are doing quite well for themselves financially and helping to legitimize this budding sector. While countless titles are played competitively, the biggest prizes and highest paid athletes seem to come from games such as DOTA 2, Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and League of Legends. Let’s take a look at some of the world’s most successful gamers.
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok: $1,300,000
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is widely considered to be the best League of Legends player of all time. While esports has been on the rise in places like India, South Korea is still the Mecca for the budding industry and Sang-hyeok is possibly the most accomplished player in the country. In fact, he has been inducted into the Korean Esports Hall of Fame at the age of 25.
Sang-hyeok first picked up LOL in 2011 and quickly became talented at the title. Known for his technical skill and versatile abilities, he is able to play many different roles for his team. Together with several other players, he runs the T1 team that can regularly be seen at LOL competitions. The entirety of his net worth has come from this one game as he has brought home $1.3 million in prizes.
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen: $1,900,000
The Counter-Strike series has been a part of esports since the industry began. Of all the iterations over the years, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been one of the most highly competitive. Amongst all of the CS:GO players from around the world, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen is the most respected and feared.
The Danish national has been playing Counter-Strike for over 15 years and has been the head of team Astralis since 2015. Together, he and his teammates were the first players to win 4 majors in CS:GO, a run in which they won 3 majors consecutively. His total tournament winnings are said to amount to almost $2 million.
Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf: $3,200,000
Of all the games mentioned on this list, Fortnite is by far the youngest. Launched in 2017, the game quickly took the world by storm and became a cultural phenomenon. It wasn’t long until it became a major esports title as well, drawing competitors from all over the globe. As of 2020, there were more than 350 million registered accounts on developer Epic Games’ servers. This makes Fortnite one of the most played video games in the world.
Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf has set himself apart from the pack and established himself as Fortnite’s strongest player. In 2019, he swept the Fortnite World Cup and took home an astonishing $3,000,000 for his efforts. Since then, Giersdorf has become a sensational streamer as well, with more than 4 million followers on Twitch and 3.8 million followers on YouTube.
Johan “N0tail” Sundstein: $7,000,000
According to multiple sources that track the total career earnings of these esports pros, Johan “N0tail” Sundstein has earned more than all other gamers in terms of competition prize money. This figure does not include additional earnings from streaming services like Twitch and YouTube however, as these are a different category entirely.
Hailing from Denmark, Sundstein is one of the most successful and talented players of DOTA 2. In 2019, he was declared the #1 esports athlete in the world after leading his team, OG, to the DOTA 2 championship, The International. After this victory, he was featured in Forbes 30 under 30. As he is just 25 years old, Sundstein likely has a bright future ahead of him as he ushers in the new era of esports talent.
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