2020 has hit a lot of markets extremely hard– however not esports.
The lockdown has actually brought substantial growth in audiences to expert gaming as millions flock to enjoy the world’s best players in action.
This new level of interest will just help the market grow, along with the pay packages of the players themselves.
However, how much do they earn?
New research by esports bookies Unikrn shows just how much the top 25 players have actually been winning in tournament prize money up until now this year.
In 2019, there was a total prize pool of $227 m shared in between over 25,000 players playing in 5,000 competitions.
Six months into 2020 and there’s still been $325 m in prize money — regardless of the cancellation and post ponement of lots of events.
Of that pot, the highest earning player has actually taken home $300,000 up until now.
Brazilian Paulo Damo Da Rosa, called PVDDR, won Magic: The Event Arena’s, Magic World Championship XXVI in February– stealing the substantial cost in one swelling amount.
The 5 members of Spacestation Gaming’s Rainbow Six Siege team — Bosco, Rampy, Thinkingnade, Fultz and Canadian– also feature in the top 10.
Their triumphes in this year’s Six Invitational 2020 and Pro League Season 11 have earned them $210,000 each.
With a combined age of 47, teens Wolfiez, Furious and JannisZ are in the top 16 for their big Fortnite wins.
The UK’s Wolfiez, 16, has actually taken home $130,000 up until now this year from 2 competitions coming second in both FNCS Invitationals: Europe last month.
JannisZ, 15, from Germany, won one of those competitions, while American 16-year- old Furious protected success in the FNCS Grand Finals in The United States And Canada– both earning $120,000+
Amongst the top 25, Chess24 stars Hikaru Nakamura and grandmaster Magnus Carlsen have also taken home over $100,000 each in prize money.
DATA
The typical age of the top 25 earning players up until now in 2020 is 24 years old
So far this year, the top nation for earning prize money is the United States with players making over $6million in between 1,870 of them.
Nevertheless, the best average prize winner per nation comes from Jordan
Six players earned an average of $33,000 each– made up mainly by Doha 2 players Yapzor and Miracle-, who declared $175,000 of the total $200,000
Bear in mind all of these earnings do not include their sponsorships, wages or bonus offers– some of which are rumoured to be around the $500,000 mark.
So there will be players quickly taking home near to $1,000,000 a year.
The highest earning esports player of all-time is Danish Dota 2 player Johan Sundstein.
Passing player ID N0tail, the 26-year- old has actually collected $6.9 m in prize money from 117 competitions and been a winner at the International 2018 and 2019.
Ryan Jurado, esports analyst with the market juggernaut Unikrn, stated: ” As excellent as the prize earnings are in esports, they’re just the suggestion of the iceberg.
” In reality, thousands of players around the world make extra earnings by building their brand name and fan bases with non-competition activities such as gaming streams, earn earnings with sponsorship offers and receive a wage to play as part of an arranged team.
” Amazon’s Twitch alone has 22,000 partnered banners, many of whom are playing games and earning cash outside of competitions. When you add in Microsoft’s Mixr, Google’s YouTube, Facebook, plus non-American platforms like Huya, plus thousands of annual video game competitions, the number of players making some type of earnings by gaming is likely well over 100,000 worldwide. For many, this is a paying pastime instead of a profession, however some players do reach multi-millionaire status before they even finish high school.”
Paid Esports Players in 2020 (By Cash Prize)
Top 10 Highest Earning Countries in 2020 (By Cash Prize)
Nation | Cash Prize | Players | Typical per |
United States | $ 6,340,64689 | 1870 | $ 3,39072 |
China | $ 2,918,94404 | 340 | $ 8,58513 |
Brazil | $ 2,161,50614 | 401 | $ 5,39029 |
Korea, Republic of | $ 2,067,29352 | 455 | $ 4,54350 |
France | $ 1,516,40365 | 419 | $ 3,61910 |
Russian Federation | $ 1,495,11767 | 440 | $ 3,39799 |
Denmark | $ 1,472,04131 | 173 | $ 8,50891 |
Germany | $ 1,262,67052 | 483 | $ 2,61422 |
UK | $ 1,255,64162 | 333 | $ 3,77070 |
Canada | $ 1,170,59149 | 308 | $ 3,80062 |
Highest Earning Players of Perpetuity (By Cash Prize)
Real name | Player name | Game | Citizenship | Age | Cash Prize Overall | Competitions |
Johan Sundstein | N0tail | Dota 2 | Denmark | 26 | $ 6,895,04018 | 117 |
Jesse Vainikka | JerAx | Dota 2 | Finland | 28 | $ 6,470,00002 | 65 |
Anathan Pham | ana | Dota 2 | Australia | 20 | $ 6,000,41196 | 24 |
Sébastien Debs | Ceb | Dota 2 | France | 28 | $ 5,501,23301 | 54 |
Topias Taavitsainen | Topson | Dota 2 | Finland | 22 | $ 5,415,04617 | 21 |
Kuro Takhasomi | KuroKy | Dota 2 | Germany | 27 | $ 5,177,76481 | 110 |
Amer Al-Barkawi | Miracle- | Dota 2 | Jordan | 22 | $ 4,743,11888 | 57 |
Ivan Ivanov | MinD_ContRoL | Dota 2 | Bulgaria | 25 | $ 4,534,19336 | 67 |
Maroun Merhej | GH | Dota 2 | Lebanon | 24 | $ 4,137,12644 | 44 |
Lasse Urpalainen | Matumbaman | Dota 2 | Finland | 25 | $ 3,674,18104 | 69 |
** Statistics drawn from www.esportsearnings.com and do not consist of wages, bonus offers or sponsorships
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