How much money professional esportsmen make
Yuriy SheremetThe rapid growth of esports has led to that modern young people dream not only about football, basketball, and tennis career. Today, children spend more spare time not at sports sections but playing favorite video games, starting playing since they were little. The desire to become a part of a professional esports team can bring success, prominence, and financial health in the future.
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Just because the esports industry develops incredibly fast and it is far from its peak of interest, earnings will keep growing here. Due to this, almost every beginning gamer asks the question: "How much money do professional esportsmen make?". Let’s figure it out.
The structure of the earnings of esportsmen in professional teams
The growth of gamers’ salaries has been noticed in all regions of our planet for almost ten years. For example, the earnings of esportsmen have raised from $100 per month to more than $2000 per the same period in Russia in the last decade. A similar situation can be noticed in Europe, China, America, and the CIS countries.
The total earnings of a professional gamer (Dota 2, CS:GO, League of Legends) can be formed from a few sources.
A salary in a club as a contractor
According to the signed contract, an esportsman pledges to train under the control of a team’s coach and also play at competitions under the tag of his club, for which he will be receiving a stable salary during the whole term of the contract. An average monthly salary usually amounts to $1000-$5000 in a successful club.
A part of a prize pool from the participation in tournaments
A slot on a team’s roster allows a gamer to receive a part of the money, which a team earns for successful performances at tournaments. And the higher the place is in standings, the bigger the sum a player will receive.
The numbers of these prizes can vary from a few thousands of dollars to a few millions of dollars. It depends on the level of competition and a place held by a club. For example, the team OG, which represents the European Union, earned the main prize at the tournament The International 2019, which equals a bit more than fifteen and a half million dollars. It meant that every participant of the winning team had at least $3,000,000.
Money from promotional contracts
Famous companies have been involving famous esportsmen to shoot in their advertising videos in recent years. Fees for this activity amount to a few dozens of thousands of dollars.
A profit from streaming activities
Despite real earnings from streaming are many times lower than esportsmen’ salaries, which are written in contracts, and prizes at tournaments, famous players sometimes can receive sums, which amount to thousands of dollars, from donations. There were cases when famous gamers were donated up to $50,000 by rich fans.
Other sources of income
Professional esportsmen who are out from a team’s roster for some reason often make money by working as a caster or becoming an analyst. It is logical because the fans’ interest in esports is constantly growing.
Earnings of esportsmen after the end of a gaming career
A career as a modern player in esports is pretty short, very few people can continue to 30 years. Competition is always growing, talented freshmen come as a replacement. Retired gamers need to earn money in the future because not everybody managed to make enough money for a nice pension.
A coaching activity
Many former players continue their way in esports as coaches and team managers. The number of clubs increases regularly, so there is always a real chance to receive a position of a coach in a team with rich sponsors. However, the teams, which pretend on serious results, have psychologists, strength and conditioning coaches, and a full complement of staff.
Casting and streaming
A career of a professional gamer provides opportunities to stay in esports in the future. Many experienced ex-players find themselves as casters like it is made by many successful esportsmen in the Asian countries.
Former gamers have also started casting tournaments in other regions in the recent time. The famous Danish player in the past, Troels 'Synderen' Nielsen can boast of successful experience of working as a caster. Streams, hosted on the service Twitch.tv, are another opportunity to make money for retired gamers.
Business and investment
At the same time, the end of the career of a professional player is a chance to find yourself in something absolutely different. In fact, they are still young people who have lots of opportunities.
For example, such famous players as Sheng '2009' Wu who used to play Dota 2 successfully for the Chinese team LGD.sGty and the American Jonathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel who used to be a real legend in Quake have become successful businessmen who have earned not a single million of dollars. So there are definitely lots of options.
The level of earnings of esportsmen by disciplines
The biggest prize sums operate in the popular discipline Dota 2. The prize pool of the last tournament The International 2019 amounted to $34,000,000 and the winner OG earned about 15,5 million dollars of grabs, which were divided by 5 players.
The discipline Fortnite stood out in 2019 too. The record was made by the 16-years-old player Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf, having achieved victory at the tournament Fortnite World Cup. His prize for the victory amounted to a bit more than 3 million dollars.
As the statistics state, the sum of all prize pool in esports disciplines surpassed $216,000,000 in 2019. The richest of them include Dota 2, Fortnite, and CS:GO esports tournaments.
If we talking about the total earnings in esports history, only Dota 2 gamers enter the top ten. The first five of them consists of the participants of the team OG, which won The International 2019. The richest of them is Johan "N0tai" Sundstein. As at the beginning of 2020, he earned $6,890,591. His four teammates are behind him only a bit who have shared the success at the previous world championship.
How much professional players earn in different countries
If we speak about earnings in esports by countries, everything depends on a particular esports discipline. For example, there is no dominating region in Dota 2, Fortnite, and CS:GO, while League of Legends is South Korea and China, StarCraft 2 is popular in South Korea too, Call of Duty is widespread in the USA and so on.
How much esportsmen earn in Russia, Ukraine, and the CIS region
Talking about Dota 2 and CS:GO, gamers in average teams make from 300 to 2000 dollars per month. At the same time, it is worth noticing that contract salaries are significantly higher in the leading Russian and Ukrainian teams, to which Virtus.pro and Na’Vi can be definitely related, and it can reach $10,000 for sure.
Europe, the USA, and Asia
Contract salaries amount to $25,000 - $30,000 per month in famous European and American teams. It is understandable that prizes and other additional earnings are added to these sums. Salaries are significantly lower in the Asian countries, so Russian and Ukrainian gamers go to play for European clubs with way bigger pleasure.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.