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Esports Highest Earnings - Who is the Best eSports Player

Esports is now considered a professional sport and competitive gaming is no longer about sitting at home in front of a computer screen. Many of the world's best eSports teams compete in multiple games rather than just one single game and the best players often make a name for themselves. You will see teams that play a number of different games even though all the games are different from one another. You don't see this as often with players though and they tend to stick with just one game.

The eSports industry is worth almost a billion dollars and some of the best teams have earned more millions from competitions and tournaments. The pro gaming teams are worth a lot and many have sponsors and many of the professional players have an eSports salary. On this page of our site, we are going to look at the highest earning eSports teams and players from around the world.

Top 5 eSports Teams by Earnings

  1. Evil Geniuses: This team has earned $15 million. They are based in San Francisco and were founded as a Canadian Counter-Strike team back in 1999 by Alexander Garfield. The team now competes in tournaments for Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, Call of Duty, Halo, and World of Warcraft. The team is a subsidiary of GoodGame Agency which is owned by Amazon via their Twitch division.
  2. Wings Gaming: $9.6 million. A new Chinese professional Dota 2 team that has managed to make a huge name for itself. They won more than $9 million at the International in 2016 and this put them into the Guinness Book of Records.
  3. Newbee: $7.3 million. Chinese Dota 2 team that won The International 2014 winning $5 million the biggest prize in an eSports tournament at that time. They also play Heartstone and League of Legends.
  4. Fnatic: $7.1 million: With players from around the world this team plays Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Dota 2. They've won multiple LoL tournaments and their CS:GO team has won three majors as well as other tournaments.
  5. SK Telecom T1: Based in China and South Korea this eSports team was founded in 2002 and is one of the oldest pro eSports teams in Asia. They have taken part in more than 200 tournaments and play League of Legends and StarCraft II.

Best eSports Players

Below are the top 10 greatest eSports players since the inception of eSports as a competitive game.

  • Moon: Jang Jae-Ho is the great Warcraft 3 player.
  • Jaedong: The best Zerg player in Starcraft: Brood War.
  • Dendi: The best Dota 2 player.
  • Fatal1ty: Jonathan Wendel is the most important player in the United States and the single highest earner in eSports history.
  • F0rest: Patrik Lindbergh is a Swedish and the part of the Fnatic team that are the highest earning Counter-Strike team in history.
  • Daigo: Japanese player who was one of the first global stars.
  • Boxer: Lim Yo Hwan often consider the greatest player in eSports history.
  • GeT_RiGhT: Christopher Alesund is one of the best Counter-Strike players.
  • Flash: The highest earning Starcraft player of all time is Lee Young Ho.
  • Faker: Lee Sang-hyeok is the best player in League of Legends.

    • Top 10 ESports Player Earnings 2018

    Below are the top ten player earnings for 2018 so far.

    1. Tom60229: Chinese player, Real name Chen Wei Lin has won $250,000
    2. Fr0zen: United States player, Real name Frank Zhang has won $151, 500
    3. Rogue: Korean player, real name Lee Byung Ryul has won $150,825
    4. Saltmachine: United States player real name Ben M has won $120,000
    5. PolarBearMike: United States player real name Micheal Heiss has won $120,000
    6. PandaCat: Swedish player real name Maksim Yanevich has won $120,000
    7. Varizial: United States player real name Lucas Spracklin has won $120,000
    8. Venenu: United States player real name Brandon Casale has won $120,000
    9. Stewie2K: United States player real name Jamey Yip has won $114,850
    10. Autimatic: United States player real name Timothy Ta has won $113,900

    eSports Salary Per Country

    As you can see there is a lot of money to be made in professional gaming and many teams for sponsorships and have salaries. Esports salaries per country vary by team and players and the lack of transparency makes it different for us to see exactly what an eSports salary should be. Each team receives an amount of money to provide salaries and help with operating expenses and according to professional eSports organization, Riot, each eSports salary per player must be a minimum of $12,500 for the 28-match season. There are some players that receive a lot more than this and in addition to their salary, they can earn money by winning or placing in competitions and this can go up to $20 million.