eSports

Esports earnings: Top 25 Highest Paid Players in 2020 So Far

Published

2 weeks ago

June 16, 2020

Esports earnings: Top 25 Highest Paid Players in 2020 So Far

Reading Time: 4 minutes

> Five teenagers, including a 15-year-old, among the best
> Two chess players make the list
> No League of Legends players in top 25

2020 has hit a lot of industries very hard – but not esports.

The lockdown has brought huge growth in viewers to professional gaming as millions flock to watch the world’s best players in action.

This new level of interest will only help the industry grow, along with the pay packets of the gamers themselves.

But, how much do they earn?

New research by esports bookmakers Unikrn shows just how much the top 25 players have been winning in tournament prize money so far this year.

In 2019, there was a total prize pool of $227m shared between over 25,000 players playing in 5,000 tournaments.

Six months into 2020 and there’s still been $32.5m in prize money – despite the cancellation and postponement of many events.

Of that pot, the highest earning player has taken home $300,000 so far.

Brazilian Paulo Damo Da Rosa, known as PVDDR, won Magic: The Gathering Arena’s, Magic World Championship XXVI in February – pocketing the huge fee in one lump sum.

The five members of Spacestation Gaming’s Rainbow Six Siege team – Bosco, Rampy, Thinkingnade, Fultz and Canadian – also feature in the top 10.

Their victories in this year’s Six Invitational 2020 and Pro League Season 11 have earned them $210,000 each.

With a combined age of 47, teenagers Wolfiez, Furious and JannisZ are in the top 16 for their big Fortnite wins.

The UK’s Wolfiez, 16, has taken home $130,000 so far this year from two tournaments coming second in both FNCS Invitationals: Europe last month.

JannisZ, 15, from Germany, won one of those tournaments, while American 16-year-old Furious secured victory in the FNCS Grand Finals in North America – both earning $120,000+.

Among the top 25, Chess24 stars Hikaru Nakamura and grandmaster Magnus Carlsen have also taken home over $100,000 each in prize money.

STATISTICS

The average age of the top 25 earning players so far in 2020 is 24 years old.

So far this year, the top country for earning prize money is the United States with players making over $6million between 1,870 of them.

However, the best average prize winner per country belongs to Jordan.

Six players earned an average of $33,000 each – made up mostly by Doha 2 players Yapzor and Miracle-, who claimed $175,000 of the total $200,000.

Bear in mind all of these earnings do not include their sponsorships, bonuses or salaries – some of which are rumoured to be around the $500,000 mark.

So there will be players easily taking home close to $1,000,000 a year.

The highest earning esports player of all-time is Danish Dota 2 player Johan Sundstein.

Going by player ID N0tail, the 26-year-old has amassed $6.9m in prize money from 117 tournaments and been a winner at the International 2018 and 2019.

Ryan Jurado, esports analyst with the industry juggernaut Unikrn, said: “As impressive as the prize earnings are in esports, they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

“In reality, thousands of players around the world make additional income by building their brand and fan bases with non-competition activities such as gaming streams, earn income with sponsorship deals and receive a salary to play as part of an organized team.

“Amazon’s Twitch alone has 22,000 partnered streamers, most of whom are playing games and earning cash outside of tournaments. When you add in Microsoft’s Mixr, Google’s YouTube, Facebook, plus non-American platforms like Huya, plus thousands of yearly video game tournaments, the number of players making some form of income by gaming is likely well over 100,000 worldwide. For most, this is a paying hobby rather than a career, but some players do reach multi-millionaire status before they even graduate high school.”

Top 25 Highest Paid Esports Players in 2020 (By Prize Money)

Real name	Player name	Game	Nationality	Age	Prize Money 2020	Tournaments	Prize Money (Overall)
Paulo Damo da Rosa	PVDDR	Magic: The Gathering Arena	Brazil	32	$300,000.00	1	$337,800.00
Troy Jaroslawski	Canadian	Rainbow Six Siege	Canada	23	$210,000.00	2	$317,628.57
Dylan Bosco	Bosco	Rainbow Six Siege	United States	25	$210,000.00	2	$275,750.00
Nathanial Duvall	Rampy	Rainbow Six Siege	United States		$210,000.00	2	$261,060.00
Javier Escamila	Thinkingnade	Rainbow Six Siege	El Salvador	21	$210,000.00	2	$261,030.00
Alec Fultz	Fultz	Rainbow Six Siege	American		$210,000.00	2	$238,966.67
Lee, Byung Ryul	Rogue	Starcraft II	Korea	26	$155,128.20	9	$832,543.20
Marcio Carvalho	Marcio Carvalho	Magic The Gathering Arena	Portugal	34	$150,000.00	1	$214,900.00
Jaden Ashman	Wolfiez	Fortnite	UK	16	$130,000.00	2	$1,300,026.67
Lasse Urpalainen	Matumbaman	Dota 2	Finland	25	$122,413.40	7	$3,684,194.44
Clement Ivanov	Puppey	Dota 2	Estonia	30	$122,413.40	7	$2,783,899.63
Ludwig Wåhlberg	Zai	Dota 2	Sweden	22	$122,413.40	7	$2,443,054.42
Yazied Jaradat	YapzOr	Dota 2	Jordan	25	$122,413.40	7	$1,452,524.07
Michał Jankowski	Nisha	Dota 2	Poland	19	$122,413.40	7	$852,679.11
	Furious	Fortnite	United States	16	$121,500.00	3	$122,400.00
	JannisZ	Fortnite	Germany	15	$120,000.00	1	$131,362.42
Asger Larsen	AcilioN	CS:GO	Denmark	23	$117,688.05	6	$205,471.35
Lucas Andersen	Bubzki	CS:GO	Denmark	21	$113,800.00	5	$186,770.86
Frederik Gyldstrand	acoR	CS:GO	Denmark	22	$113,800.00	5	$183,034.72
Rasmus Beck	sjuush	CS:GO	Denmark	21	$113,800.00	5	$178,613.09
Fredrik Jørgensen	roejJ	CS:GO	Denmark		$113,800.00	5	$167,242.03
Hikaru Nakamura	Hikaru	Chess24	Japan	32	$102,632.19	10	$148,117.61
Sven Magnus Carlsen	DrNykterstein	Chess24	Norway	29	$101,170.48	7	$130,928.92
Seth Manfield	Seth Manfield	Magic: The Gathering Arena	United States	29	$100,000.00	1	$141,900.00
David Wang	Aqua	Fortnite	Austria	18	$98,750.00	4	$1,868,341.23

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Top 10 Highest Earning Countries in 2020 (By Prize Money)

Country	Prize Money	Players	Average per
United States	$6,340,646.89	1870	$3,390.72
China	$2,918,944.04	340	$8,585.13
Brazil	$2,161,506.14	401	$5,390.29
Korea, Republic of	$2,067,293.52	455	$4,543.50
France	$1,516,403.65	419	$3,619.10
Russian Federation	$1,495,117.67	440	$3,397.99
Denmark	$1,472,041.31	173	$8,508.91
Germany	$1,262,670.52	483	$2,614.22
United Kingdom	$1,255,641.62	333	$3,770.70
Canada	$1,170,591.49	308	$3,800.62

Highest Earning Players of All Time (By Prize Money)

Real name	Player name	Game	Nationality	Age	Prize Money Overall	Tournaments
Johan Sundstein	N0tail	Dota 2	Denmark	26	$6,895,040.18	117
Jesse Vainikka	JerAx	Dota 2	Finland	28	$6,470,000.02	65
Anathan Pham	ana	Dota 2	Australia	20	$6,000,411.96	24
Sébastien Debs	Ceb	Dota 2	France	28	$5,501,233.01	54
Topias Taavitsainen	Topson	Dota 2	Finland	22	$5,415,046.17	21
Kuro Takhasomi	KuroKy	Dota 2	Germany	27	$5,177,764.81	110
Amer Al-Barkawi	Miracle-	Dota 2	Jordan	22	$4,743,118.88	57
Ivan Ivanov	MinD_ContRoL	Dota 2	Bulgaria	25	$4,534,193.36	67
Maroun Merhej	GH	Dota 2	Lebanon	24	$4,137,126.44	44
Lasse Urpalainen	Matumbaman	Dota 2	Finland	25	$3,674,181.04	69

**Stats taken from www.esportsearnings.com and do not include salaries, bonuses or sponsorships

eSports

Epic Esports Events ranked 15th among the 50 best event companies in the world by Global Eventex Awards

Published

3 hours ago

July 2, 2020

George Miller

Epic Esports Events ranked 15th among the 50 best event companies in the world by Global Eventex Awards

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Tournament organizer Epis Esports Events took the 15th place in the international rating by Global Eventex Awards. Every year, the organizers of the professional award in the field of event management select the top 50 best organizers and agencies: the Eventex index is a list of companies, places in which are determined by the total number of points for awards won at the Global Eventex Awards over three years.

Tournament operator Epic Esports Events and the EPICENTER Major 2019 tournament were awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze prizes at the 10th-anniversary edition of Eventex Awards 2020. EPICENTER organizers won prizes in 5 categories:

Gold in the “Russian Event” and “Brand Experience – Leisure” categories;
Silver in the “Esports Event” category, second only to The International 2019;
Bronze in the “Event Team” and “People’s Choice Agency/Team” categories — in the latter, the decision was made not by the jury, but by open voting, which was attended by 5,300 people from all over the world.

A year earlier, EPICENTER XL won first place in the “Russian Event” category.

A full list of the top 50 event organizers and agencies can be found here: eventex.co/index/

eSports

Getty Images To Be Dedicated In-Game esports Photographers for FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2020

George Miller

Getty Images To Be Dedicated In-Game esports Photographers for FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Getty Images to serve as the Exclusive Photographic Agency of Gran Turismo’s global lineup of esport events

Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, and Polyphony Digital Inc., creator of the Gran Turismo franchise, have today announced a deal that will see Getty Images’ world-class motorsport specialist photographers capturing stunning in-game photography from Gran Turismo’s online and live World Tour events. Getty Images will serve as the exclusive Photographic Agency of the FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships.

The new service was debuted during the 2019 season. Getty Images used its expertise in photographing live racing to deliver imagery from inside the digital realm of the Gran Turismo game at Gran Turismo World Tour events at the Nürburgring, New York, Salzburg, Tokyo and Sydney and last year’s World Finals in Monaco in November 2019.

The 2020 FIA Gran Turismo Championships recommenced on April 25^th with the first round of Stage 1 of the online season for both the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series. The Top 16 Superstars broadcasts feature the best of the racing action from the top competitors in both the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series.

By harnessing Getty Images’ global distribution, this partnership aims to bridge the gap between two worlds -virtual and real- to showcase the beauty and exhilaration of simulated racing to a wider global audience. As esports and its surrounding ecosystem continues to see exponential growth and with brands and media around the world catering to a growing community of esports fans and players, Getty Images is once again innovating through visual content and leading the way in sport photography.

“This partnership with Polyphony Digital signifies the next phase of sport photography and the true growth that is occurring across the esports landscape,” said Getty Images Global Head of Content Ken Mainardis. “Getty Images has long been at the forefront of innovating through its sport photography and by creating in-game imagery with expert motorsport photographers, Getty Images is staying ahead of the curve to deliver premium esports content to our customers around the world.”

As the exclusive Photographic Agency of the FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships, Getty Images will distribute innovative still imagery. Esports sponsors and suppliers will benefit from the agreed rights and access to Gran Turismo content while ensuring media can continue to access editorial coverage via Getty Images.

SOURCE press.gettyimages.com

Asia

Nova Esports Partners with GodLike Esports

Published

1 day ago

July 1, 2020

Niji Narayan

Nova Esports Partners with GodLike Esports

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Hong Kong-based Nova Esports has partnered with Indian esports organisation Godlike Esports. The new team will be known as Nova GodLike. Through the deal, Nova GodLike will compete in Tencent’s PUBG Mobile with an Indian roster.

Anthony “AY” Yeung, CEO of Nova Esports, spoke on the reasoning behind the deal in an announcement: “PUBG Mobile is currently trending in the gaming section of India. It has surpassed other games in terms of popularity and revenue and made a place for itself in Indian pop culture. Even people who have not played the game would have seen and heard about it through various social media memes and posts.”

Nova Esports has several goals it hopes to achieve through its new Nova GodLike brand, namely succeeding in global PUBG Mobile competitions, turning its players into public figures, attracting other organisations to the Indian esports market, and creating “high quality content for the community.”