Who are the highest-earning esports players of all time?

In the past, esports was seen by many outside of the community as a way to ‘earn money by playing games’. While that is mostly an exaggeration, several players have managed to win big by playing esports titles. 

In this article, Esports Insider delves into the players who have earned the most money in their careers for their respective games. This list does not include sponsorship revenues or wages, but the prize money distributed to the players, due to the inability to accurately know the ins and outs of player contracts and deals with partners.  

Some Dota 2 players have earned the highest amount at events globally by far, due to The International having immense prize pools in the past. Interestingly, Fortnite comes second, followed by Counter-Strike (Largely CS:GO), League of Legends and mobile MOBA Arena of Valor.

The values shared in this article represent prize money recorded by Esports Earnings, a platform that records prize money earned by players across dozens of games by aggregating sources such as videos, interviews, official statements and social media data.

Dota 2 players account for 38 out of the top 40 players by earnings in history, according to Esports Earnings, each collecting more than $2m (~£1.5m) during their careers. Out of all Dota 2 players, Danish player Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein is at the top, making Sundstein not only the highest-earning Dota 2 player, but the highest-earning esports player on record. 

During his career, Sundstein received more than $7.1m (~£5.5m) in prize money. This amount is largely due to the player winning four Majors and two editions of The International, the most of any player in history. Sundstein spent his career across multiple teams between 2012 – 2021, including Fnatic, Team Secret and Cloud9, but is most known for being the Founder of (monkey)Business, the team that would go on to become OG. 

Jesse Vainikka, known as JerAx, another former OG player, takes the second place in earnings for Dota 2, with around $6.5m (~£5m) of prize money earned during his career. 

Despite Fortnite’s prize pools being reduced recently and its esports scene not growing at the pace some suggested in the past, professional Fortnite players have earned more than $182m (~£140m) in prize winnings during its history. The highest-earning Fortnite player is Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf, known mostly for winning the 2019 Fortnite World Cup in Solos. The win got him $3m (~£2.3m), and he managed to earn over $710,000 (~£538,000) more since, making him the highest-earning Fortnite player of all time, and the highest-earning player not in Dota 2.

The 2019 World Cup was lucrative to others as well. David ‘aqua’ Wang and Emil ‘nyhrox’ Pedersen shared the $1.5m (~£1.16m ) prize for winning the Duos. This made Wang the second-best player when it comes to Fortnite earnings in history, with around 2.2m (~£1.7m) overall. 

Similar to how most of OG’s dominant roster sits at the top of earnings in Dota 2, Astralis’ Danish core between 2017 to 2019 is the highest-earning group of players in CS:GO. At the top is Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen. 

Rasmussen is the most decorated player in CS:GO history, with five Major titles to his name. This has resulted in the player amounting to a total earnings of $2.2m (~£1.7m) throughout his career across Astralis, Team Vitality, Heroic and other teams. 

Rasmussen’s teammate Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth earned just over $2m (~£1.5m) in his career. The highest-earning players not a part of a former Astralis lineup are NAVI’s superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev and Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen, the current in-game leader for FaZe Clan. Andersen has earned $1.56m (~£1.18m) playing Counter-Strike, and Kostyljev made around $1.71m (~£1.30m).

Perhaps surprisingly, League of Legends players usually do not earn as much from prize money as competitors in some other games. Out of all the League of Legends players, the game’s greatest of all time, Faker, has earned the most money during his career. The T1 player has earned around $1.71m (~£1.30m) of prize money during his career, making him the only League of Legends player to make it to the top 100 of players by money earned, according to Esports Earnings.

Lee ‘Duke‘ Ho Seong is the second-highest-earning player in League of Legends history, with around $955,000 (~£738,900) earned through the MOBA’s competitions.

Although relatively unknown to PC esports fans, Arena of Valor is one of the most popular games in the world. The game also has its Eastern version, Honor of Kings, and the two are often regarded as the same game (top teams from both games often compete against each other in international tournaments).

Arena of Valor players have earned more money than, for example, PUBG, Rocket League or Rainbow Six: Siege competitors. Arena of Valor prize earnings are almost double those of Rainbow Six and more than double those of Rocket League. For example, the highest prize pool in Rocket League was $2.1m (RLCS World Championship in 2022-2023), with Rainbow Six hitting $3m (~£2.32) in 2020 (Six Invitational). However, the Honor of Kings International Championship 2022 had a $10m (~£7.74m) prize pool. 

Luo ‘HuaHai’ Siyuan is the highest-earning player in Arena of Valor history and has spent his entire playing career at eStar Pro, now part of Ninjas in Pyjamas. Most of Siyuan’s earnings come from winning the Honor of Kings International Championship and the Honor of Kings World Champion Cup, but the player also won the King Pro League two times. This all adds to around $1.8m (~£1.36m) of earnings throughout his career.

Peng ‘Fly’ Yunfei is at the all-time second place in earnings, having accumulated around $1.6m (~£1.21m) by playing Arena of Valor.

The mobile version of PUBG Battlegrounds, called PUBG MOBILE, has interestingly handed out more prize money than the original PC game. Zhu ‘paraboy’ Bocheng is the highest-earning player in PUBG MOBILE, having earned most of his prize money during his time at Nova Esports. Bocheng has earned around $1.39m (~£1.08m) playing PUBG during his career, which started in 2019.

Given the fact that VALORANT is still a rising esports scene, it’s unsurprising to know that there has been a widespread of earners. In total, 21 players have earned between $200,000 (~£151,600) to $337,000 (~£248,200). The highest earner on Esports Earnings’ list is VALORANT Champions 2023 winner Corbin ‘C0M’ Lee ($327,300) with his former Evil Geniuses’ teammate Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold in second ($288,300) in second place.

The Rocket League esports scene is largely dominated by the RLCS, Psyonix’s esports series launched in 2016. However, two of the scene’s three most lucrative events are Rocket League events at Gamers8, the predecessor to Saudi Arabia’s Esports World Cup. Both Gamers8 events, as well as the RLCS 2022-23 – World Championship, recorded $2.1m (~£1.6m) prize pools

Rocket League’s highest-earning player is 21-year-old Frenchman Evan ‘M0nkey M00n’ Rogez with the current Team BDS player earning just over $795,000 (~£600,000). This is largely due to winning the Esports World Cup 2024 and the RLCS 2021-22 – World Championship, as well as placing second at the 2022-23 World Championship. Other notable earners include Jacob ‘JKnaps’ Knapman ($575,000), Yanis ‘Alpha54’ Champenois ($572,000) and Enzo ‘Seikoo’ Grondein ($560,000).

The highest-earning women’s players in esports have earned substantially less money through prize money than men. However, this trend is shifting with more events aimed at women and mixed-gender rosters. 

Canadian esports player Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn sits on the top of the rankings with over $470,000 (~£363,000) earned during her career playing StarCraft 2. Hostyn currently plays for Shopify Rebellion. Chinese Hearthstone player Li ‘Liooon’ Xiaomeng earned a total of $241,000 (~£182,600)  in her career, and Russian CS2 player Ksenia ‘vilga’ Klyuenkova won $123,000 (~£93,230), rounding up the top three female players by earnings.