For those who may return in time, like Hyperlink does within the Ocarina of Time, and inform any individual that in a couple of a long time individuals can be incomes a residing by taking part in video video games, you’d be certain to get met with some queer appears to be like… A bit like Brok does in God of Conflict IV.
Nevertheless, incomes (greater than) an honest residing as a gamer is feasible within the twenty first century, be that by way of sport testing, dwell streaming or aggressive gaming. Because you’re right here, we’ll assume that you simply love video games as a lot as Mario loves Peach, and that you could be be flirting with the concept of turning into an expert gamer.
To indicate you simply how doable it’s, let’s have a look at the richest skilled players on this planet, as recognized by Esports Earnings!
10. KuroKy (Kuro Takhasomi)
Present group: Workforce Nigma
Nationality: German–Iranian
Earnings so far: $5,291,572.93
Kuro Takhasomi was born in 1992 in Berlin. A incapacity affecting his legs, making it troublesome for him to stroll or play sports activities, turned one of many the explanation why he found, as a child, a expertise and keenness for enjoying video video games.
KuroKy’s skilled gaming profession started on the age of 16 in Protection of the Ancients, a multiplayer on-line battle enviornment (MOBA) technique sport. He performed for a couple of German DotA groups earlier than becoming a member of mousesports, his first worldwide group, in 2008. Since then, he has performed DotA 2 with varied groups together with Workforce Liquid and Nigma Galaxy.
9. Mira (Miroslav Kolpakov)
Present group: Workforce Spirit
Nationality: Ukrainian
Earnings so far: $5,407,579.65
Born in 1999, Miroslav Kolpakov is a Ukrainian DotA 2 gamer presently taking part in for Workforce Spirit. His first encounter with the net multiplayer sport befell at an web café when Miroslav was 12 — however it wasn’t till the age of 16 that he began taking part in extra severely.
His skilled profession started in Could 2019. Since then, he has grow to be a two-time The Worldwide winner, successful two of the annual tournaments (in 2021 and 2023) organized by online game improvement and digital distribution firm Valve.
8. Collapse (Magomed Khalilov)
Present group: Workforce Spirit
Nationality: Russia
Earnings so far: $5,421,791.67
Like Mira, Magomed Khalilov is a DotA 2 participant presently competing with Workforce Spirit. Born in Russia in 2002, he started taking part in DotA 2 on the age of 13, after listening to concerning the sport from his mates. In 2017, he determined to try to flip his ardour for the sport right into a profession.
That yr, Magomed shaped an novice group together with his mates and competed in smaller industrial tournaments in addition to the Russian Esports Cup. Then, he received invited into Cascade, a Ukrainian esports group, the place he earned his first paycheck for enjoying video video games.
Taking part in alongside his Workforce Spirit teammates, Magomed turned a two-time TI winner, beating the 2021 and 2023 tournaments.
7. Yatoro (Ilya Mulyarchuk)
Present group: Workforce Spirit
Nationality: Ukrainian
Earnings so far: $5,425,553.55
Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk is a Ukrainian participant, born in 2003, who’s presently taking part in for Workforce Spirit subsequent to Collapse and Mira.
Within the 2021 TI match, which Workforce Spirit received, Yatoro performed 14 totally different heroes in 20 video games, serving to his group take the championship. He’s the present file holder for many rampages within the TI foremost stage.
Yatoro famously shaved his head in the course of the 2021 TI match, saying: “I shaved my head as a sacrifice to the god of DotA.” Properly — it definitely labored!
6. Miposhka (Yaroslav Naidenov)
Present group: Workforce Spirit
Nationality: Russian
Earnings so far: $5,653,952.09
Fellow teammate to the Workforce Spirit gamers we talked about above, Yaroslav Naidenov was born in 1997 in Russia. He started his DotA profession in 2015, when he competed within the Worldwide 2015 European Open Qualifiers.
Yaroslav achieved the best variety of deaths per sport on the 2017 TI match, the place he was captain of the Workforce Empire roster. He was additionally captain to his present group, Workforce Spirit, at The Worldwide 2021, taking away the Aegis of Champions trophy.
5. Topson (Topias Taavitsainen)
Present group: Tundra Esports
Nationality: Finnish
Earnings so far: $5,726,841.20
Topias Taavitsainen is a Finnish skilled DotA 2 participant presently competing with Tundra Esports. Born in 1998, he’s certainly one of 12 siblings.
Topias started taking part in DotA when he was eight years outdated, after being launched to the sport by his brothers. In 2017, at age 19, his profession as an esports participant started, and Topias represented his nation on the 2017 World Digital Sports activities Video games.
Though he studied to grow to be a chef, Topias made the selection of devoting his time to video video games as a substitute. He received the Rookie of the 12 months award at theScore esports Awards in 2018 and had the best common kills per sport on the 2019 TI match.
4. Ceb (Sébastien Debs)
Present group: OG Esports
Nationality: French
Earnings so far: $5,900,842.73
Born in 1992, Sébastien Debs is an expert DotA 2 participant for OG. Previous to becoming a member of OG, he performed for varied groups, together with Mortal Teamwork, Sigma and Alliance. Moreover taking part in, he additionally acted as a coach to the OG group between 2016 and 2018.
Previously referred to as 7ckngMad, Ceb turned the primary two-time TI winner after successful the 2018 and 2019 tournaments together with his teammates Ana, N0tail and JerAx. He additionally holds the file for the longest hole between TI appearances: after The Worldwide 2012, he missed 5 video games previous to taking part once more within the 2018 video games.
3. ana (Anathan Pham)
Present group: T1
Nationality: Australian
Earnings so far: $6,024,411.96
Melbourne-born Anathan Pham started taking part in DotA 2 at a younger age, dedicating a lot time to the sport (continuously over 10 hours a day) that his efficiency in school started to undergo.
Ultimately, in 2016, 16-year-old Anathan left highschool and moved to Shanghai after being supplied a place in Invictus Gaming’s in-house league. After The Worldwide 2016, he joined OG.
Anathan took a break from skilled DotA 2 in 2018 however returned to OG in 2019, successful the TI match of that very same yr. One other hiatus adopted the victory, after which got here one other interval of aggressive taking part in earlier than Anathan introduced his retirement in 2021. Nevertheless, in 2022, he returned to the professional scene.
2. JerAx (Jesse Vainikka)
Present group: N/A
Nationality: Finnish
Earnings so far: $6,486,623.98
Jesse Vainikka was born in 1992 and is a two-time TI champion with OG. He began getting seen as a Heroes of Newerth participant earlier than switching to taking part in DotA 2 in 2013.
Jesse performed for a number of groups over his profession, together with Workforce Liquid and OG, and has additionally coached Workforce Liquid previous to his retirement from skilled DotA 2. The rationale for his retirement, in accordance with him, is that he stopped feeling the identical ardour for the sport.
1. N0tail (Johan Sundstein)
Present group: OG Esports
Nationality: Danish–Faroese
Earnings so far: $7,184,163.05
With a web price of greater than $7 million, Johan Sundstein is the best earner out of all esports gamers worldwide. Born in 1993, the skilled DotA 2 participant has received the 2018 and 2019 TI tournaments in addition to 4 Main championships.
First turning into launched to video video games as a toddler, Johan left highschool early to dedicate himself to his esports profession. Earlier than he started taking part in DotA 2, he was one of many youngest Heroes of Newerth gamers to play competitively.
Johan has performed for Fnatic, Workforce Secret, Cloud9 and OG. He holds the file for many deaths in a single TI sport. On the age of 25, he was featured within the Forbes 30 Beneath 30 class.
Ultimate ideas
Although different video games, just like the battle royale title Fortnite and MOBA sport League of Legends, can earn skilled players some huge cash, DotA 2 is essentially the highest-paying sport on the market. In response to Statista, the annual DotA 2 world tournaments prize pool for 2023 exceeded $30 million… Which was $17 million much less than the cumulative prize cash given out in 2021, which fell just below $48 million.
So, if you happen to dream of sponsorship offers, fame or simply a possibility to take a seat at your PC and earn a residing by way of video video games, by no means having to fret about going to school or working the usual 9 to five, you higher choose your DotA hero and begin working towards!
Within the meantime, be a part of the dialog under!
Initially revealed on October 2, 2018.
