Breaking Down Salaries: How Much Do eSports Players Make?

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• The financial potential of eSports has grown significantly as a result of the industry’s rapid expansion.
• Esports is now a competitive and sustainable vocation that rivals traditional sports in terms of earnings and significance.
• All five (even all 10) of the best-paid eSports players right now are Dota 2 players, which is understandable given that the largest game and eSports competition, The International, has historically had enormous prize pools.

The eSports sector has grown rapidly in the last several years, going from a specialized pastime to a multibillion-dollar worldwide phenomenon. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s data, eSports revenues are expected to reach US$1.87 billion by 2025, indicating a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 13.4% between 2020 and 2025. The financial potential of eSports has grown significantly as a result of the industry’s rapid expansion. Professional teams and players are now generating sizable incomes from sponsorships, streaming, and product sales, in addition to their tournament victories.

Johan “N0tail” Sundstein (screenshot youtube.com/@OGEsportsOfficial)

We must not forget that eSports betting, whose part online bookmakers for eSports are, has skyrocketed in recent years. Statista projects that the eSports betting market will generate US$2.5 billion in revenue by 2024. With a predicted CAGR of 7.27%, this market sector is estimated to reach a projected market volume of US$3.3 billion by 2028. Esports betting is undoubtedly becoming more and more popular around the world, with the US and China setting the pace for market expansion.

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Earning Money Is Difficult Step for Pro eSports Players

The process of generating revenue for elite eSports players is complex. Although winning competitions is still the major source of income, it’s frequently enhanced by savvy marketing on streaming services like Twitch and YouTube, where viewers pay to support their favorite players. In addition, as players and teams develop their brands, they draw in big sponsorship offers and make money from branded goods. Because of this intricate financial ecology, eSports is now a competitive and sustainable vocation that rivals traditional sports in terms of earnings and significance.

Because The International (TI) has historically had enormous prize pools, several Dota 2 players have won the most money at competitions worldwide by a significant margin. Actually, it’s understandable that all 10 of the best-paid eSports players right now are Dota 2 players, as game maker Valve contributes 25% of its in-game Battle Pass sales to the prize fund for The International events. With a whopping US$40 million prize fund (the exact figure is US$40,018,400.00), The International 2021—which took place in October 2021 at the Arena Naționala in Bucharest, Romania—broke the record for the biggest prize pool of any single eSports competition.

It’s interesting to note that League of Legends, mobile MOBA Arena of Valor, Fortnite, and Counter-Strike (mostly CS: GO before it turned into CS2) appear in order of preference. The figures shown in this article are prize money as reported by Esports Charts, a platform that offers a distinctive analytical tool that offers detailed metrics for live streams and broadcasts of eSports. To reiterate, tournament profits are the most transparent and reliable source of revenue for professional eSports players, and we stuck to them when we compiled the list of the richest eSports pros—top 5, to be more precise.

5 Topias Taavitsainen (FIN)

In the history of Dota 2, Topias Miikka “Topson” Taavitsainen has had one of the shortest but most influential careers. Nobody can claim to have won a TI on his debut, but to make other The International debutants feel worse, he also won the next one. There’s no pressure on the novices, if you ask the Finn!

After joining OG in 2018, Topson fit right in, displaying remarkable hero skills and a penchant for big plays. He was an invaluable asset to OG due to his merciless aggression and freestyle style of Dota 2. Topson’s elusive plays were rarely met with even a slight respite by OG’s opponents; in fact, his aggressive style of play earned the Danish team the status of an extremely aggressive squad.

There aren’t many flaws in his play, but humble as he is, Topson himself was the one to stress them in one interview a year ago. In response to a question concerning the causes of OG’s poor performance in DPC 2023’s Tour 2, he emphasized a lack of his own meta-knowledge and understanding of growing competitiveness, in addition to a lack of team cohesion.

Topson’s plot is the most authentic Cinderella story, if such a thing exists. Thanks to this plot, the midlaner is now among the top 5 millionaires in Dota 2 and eSports. Topson is currently competing for Tundra.

4 Sébastien Debs (FRA)

Want another Cinderella tale?

Who’d have imagined that a dejected and hopeless player of Dota 2 would go on to redeem himself by taking home two of the biggest game milestones, which opened the door for him to rank among the top 5 earnings in the history of eSports. This is the tale of Sébastien “Ceb” Debs, a French player who once attempted to fulfill his ambition of winning The International, the largest game and eSports competition. Instead, he drifted around taking notes while either working as a Dota broadcast analyst or as a student learning about entrepreneurship and management.

Ceb’s career has been criticized for his directness, trash-talking style, and outspoken demeanor because he was never a very good player in the first place. Being a part of the Dota eSports industry in its early stages, the offlaner told stories of how hard it was to make a living at the time. When he began in 2011, he noted that organizations back then just had one means of surviving, which was winning. He was a letdown when he played for Alliance and mTw because he was unable to lead either of the two teams to success. Still, he overcame those obstacles. Ceb has risen to greater heights thanks to his two ultimate victories in The International 2018 and 2019 with OG (for which he presently plays), where he won $2.3 million in the former and $3.2 million in the latter.

He’s still regarded as one of the most beloved characters in Dota history, despite his flaws as well as his stunning, beautiful playing style. But in the end, what really set him apart were his tenacity and tactical inventiveness. Though he might not be the finest mechanically, Ceb’s underdog attitude and willingness to work hard won him over many fans. Even at his lowest points, he persisted in delving into the game and grinding.

3 Anathan Pham (AUS)

Anathan “ana” Pham, a carry player (started his career as solo mid, but with little success), only began competing in eSports in 2016, but he quickly rose to prominence.

The young gamer started playing with Invictus Gaming in the Chinese region before moving to play with OG in Europe. In his first year, he won the 2016 Boston Major, his first Dota 2 Major. All in all, the Australian has won two Majors and the TI in consecutive years, 2018 and 2019. He was renowned for his brilliant playing style and unmatched sense of the game. Throughout TI 2019, he kept his opponents off balance with a unique carry-Io approach that he designed. This way he created a new meta by making the support hero Io an unkillable carry and winning five straight games using this hero alone.

He competed as a stand-in for Team Liquid in the 2022 Riyadh Masters, where the team won $100,000, following an intermittent time of retirement.

Ana is at the highest level when it comes to itemization and locating farms in the challenging game. He farms plenty in the early going, and in contrast to certain other well-known eSports players, he prefers to contribute to the team rather than being a flashy single starlord who outperforms the entire team to win. He performs at his best when he’s part of a cohesive team, preferably the English-speaking ones. The language barrier is an evident issue that ana had when playing for RNG. Unlike his teammates, who speak very little English, this language is native to him. Chinese players are typically the only ones on Chinese teams. Everyone believed that hiring ana was an uncommon exception to the norm.

He’s notorious for taking lengthy pauses from professional gaming, which is generally discouraged because Dota 2’s competitive scene is subject to sudden changes. He’s inactive at the time of writing the article after his brief stint with T1.

2 Jesse Vainikka (FIN)

Renowned Dota 2 player Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka has won numerous accolades and titles. In the history of Dota 2, he’s regarded as the greatest #4 position player.

It’s interesting to note that, in contrast to most professional players of eSports, Jesse didn’t appreciate popular video games like Dota 2, LoL, Warcraft, etc. He chose to excel in Heroes of Newerth (HoN). JerAx participated in this game as a player for two well-known teams at the start of his eSports career: Dirty Minds and KD-Gaming. There, he performed alongside well-known players like Wehsing “SingSing” Yuen and Adrian “Era” Kryeziu. JerAx, though, was unsuccessful on these rosters, and he decided to give up on playing HoN and begin serving in the Finnish Navy, realizing his eSports career was unfulfilling. Upon his return from the service, JerAx decided to give eSports another go, but this time with Dota 2 instead of Heroes of Newerth.

JerAx’s skill became apparent when he joined Team Liquid in 2015 and quickly established himself as a top player. But he didn’t have much success until he joined OG, his next squad. Playing for them, JerAx became The International champion twice, in addition to winning 10 other championships, such as the Boston Major 2016 and the Kiev Major 2017. He stopped playing Dota 2 after that and gave up on being a professional player. Just two years separated the much-anticipated comeback of the Finn to his #4 position. After two unsuccessful seasons, JerAx left Evil Geniuses. He now serves as Team Liquid’s coach and support.

One of the most aggressive roaming supports in the game right now is JerAx, who frequently applies relentless pressure to opposing midlaners from the moment they creep spawn. The Finn, who’s most recognized for his Earth Spirit, is one of the few support players who every team will constantly aim to ban early. JerAx frequently steals the show as position #4, which is no easy achievement, and is no stranger to the highlight reel style of play. He used to constantly play split pushing, strongly preferred in the 7.26 meta, which was against OG’s distinctive style of play that emphasized team fights. JerAx just loves to show off and display a flashy play style, sometimes going too far with this, and that can be considered his biggest flaw as a player.

1 Johan Sundstein (DEN)

Johan Sundstein, a.k.a. N0tail, is a legendary Dota 2 player that you have probably heard of if you follow, even just casually, the eSports scene. He’s the world’s highest-paid eSports player, who owns the record at The International for the most deaths (20) in a single game.

N0tail, whose grandfather is the former prime minister of the Faroe Islands, completed high school early to devote all of his attention to eSports. N0tail joined the ranks of the youngest-ever professional Heroes of Newerth players at the tender age of 15, playing as a solo mid. He started out on HoN servers playing random pub games until he decided to join forces with Tal “Fly” Aizik and Jascha “NoVa” Markuse. As an unauthorized side project, the Fnatic manager took them under his wing after noticing them. This was the catalyst for N0tail’s professional career to begin.

N0tail took over the support role after the switch to Dota 2. During this moment of transition, he quickly developed the micromanagement skills that would later become his famous Meepo play. Two The International titles (2018, 2019) and four Dota 2 Major titles (Frankfurt in 2025, Manila and Boston in 2026, and Kiev in 2017) are proof that his decision to transition to Dota 2 was spot-on. N0tail won two TI titles thanks to his risk-taking and off-meta play. Recognized as Dota 2’s inebriated guru, he creates and employs wild tactics to ambush adversaries. A long time ago, N0tail used to say about himself that he tanks a lot of the flak, and at one point in his career, which was also years ago, he was considered a player who farms very little.

There was one more decision N0tail made that turned out to be successful. Fly and he formed a new team in 2015, which was named OG, playing for which he won all these championships. They quickly became the first team to defend a Major title in Dota 2 history after winning the Autumn Major in 2016. N0tail and Fly broke a decade-long friendship and collaboration in 2018 when the latter moved on to play for EG. N0tail, who featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 category at the age of 25, even published a book, an autobiography about this betrayal, among other things, this year. He’s currently inactive.

If You Want to Become eSports Player…

For eSports players, there’s no standard because success and wealth are determined by practice, strategy, hard work, supportive teammates, and—above all—eSports sponsorships.

We’ll presume that because you’re here, you’ve carried your teammates a few times in, say, League of Legends or battled a few rounds with some pals in Tekken, and you’re dreaming big of becoming a professional competitive player for video games. If so, you should be aware that winning a few tournaments isn’t the sole step on the path to becoming a professional eSports player and breaking through financially. Still, a number of free agents earn their livelihood in this manner. There are other ways as well. For example, sponsorships from larger firms can open doors to better teammates, training programs, and opportunities, all of which can result in greater financial alternatives.

Don’t allow this to depress your aspirations to succeed independently; many people, among them are definitely those that are listed in the post, have succeeded in doing what they love and being wealthy in the process. Why wouldn’t you too?