The richest cyber athletes
Compared to other sports disciplines, cybersport is in its formative years. However, just like any other sport, there are top cyber athletes known and revered in the fan community. Apart from being famous, these people can also boast a very respectable income. However, solid income is only when compared to average earnings. If we compare the earnings of top eSports players with the earnings of top representatives of traditional sports, the comparison is certainly not in favour of eSports players. After all, a world-class football player earns roughly the same amount per year as, or even more than, a top cyber-sport player. And a mediocre tennis player can earn more in prize money in a year than the top players in Dota 2 or CS:GO.
However, there are players in the world of cybersport who are the envy of the rest of the community.
Before describing these people, this list does not include representatives of China, where eSports is a separate market segment with its own specificities and, in particular, its own system of payments to players.
Dota 2: Johan “N0tail” Sundstein ($6,882,440.18 prize money)
This player has won 4 of the 5 million majors and two The International tournaments as a member of the OG. The beginning of this player’s illustrious journey is considered to be 2015. And in 2017, Team OG received a promotional contract from the Red Bull brand. The salaries paid by the sponsors to the players have not been disclosed. However, it can definitely be said that Sundstein is the highest paid dater outside of China.
As for the representatives of this eSports from the former Soviet Union, the best result was gained by Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev from Russia. He has earned a total of around $1,777,600 in prize money. In the ranking, he is in 35th place.
CS:GO: Andreas “Xyp9x” Häusler, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Nikolai “device” Ridz (over $1,700,000 prize money each)
CS is vastly superior to Dota 2 in popularity in the US as well. However, this game is in second place in terms of prize money played during tournaments. The leader in the amount of prize money won in this discipline is the Danish team Astralis. At the moment, it is the unquestionable leader, and the popularity of its players is comparable in its fan base, such as Ronaldo’s popularity among football fans. In CS, the players’ main income is not prize money, but salaries. According to analysts, gamers from Astralis earn around 35,000 euros per month. In the former Soviet Union, the leader in financial success among the cyberplayers – the Ukrainian Daniel “Zeus” Teslenko. The index of his financial success is $690,000 during his career.
League of Legends: Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyuk ($1,255,465.80 prize money)
The legendary Korean, who is a three-time world champion and has won the national championship multiple times in his home country, is not only famous for his prize money, but he’s also earned a considerable income from his promotional contracts. And more recently, one of his major sources of income has come from T1, with which he has been associated throughout his career and of which he recently became a part-owner.
The Korean sportsman is known not only for his high income, but also for his almost ascetic lifestyle. His monthly expenses do not exceed 170 dollars. However, you won’t find any spenders among all the other top cyber sportsmen either. After all, the key to success in this activity is to put your best years on the altar, to make cyber sport a kind of “monasticism”, when there is simply no room for anything else in a person’s life.
