Top 10 richest esports players of all time

This week we asked ourselves a simple question: Who are the top 10 richest esports players of all time, based on the prize money they’ve won?

It turns out that there are ten Dota players. So we decided to make our top 10 list with a little more variety.

We went through the list of the highest-earning esports players of all time by tournament wins and picked out the top-earning players from ten different games. Besides Dota, CS:GO, and League of Legends, there are even some games you wouldn’t have expected. So buckle up, because we’re going to introduce you to the richest esports players by game.

10. Sonic Fox (Mortal Kombat)

We start the list with the highest-earning fighting game player of all time: Sonic Fox. It would be an understatement for many to say that Sonic Fox is a legend in the Fighting Game community. He is the best player to ever star in Mortal Kombat. But Sonic Fox isn’t just a champion in Mortal Kombat.

He has won the EVO Championships in Dragon Ball Fighter and Injustice and dominated his opponents in Marvel vs Capcom, Infinite Skull Girls and many other games. He has taken first place 60 times, including five EVO World Championships, earning approximately $676,000. For Sonic Fox, however, winning isn’t as important as silencing the haters.

9. Frosty (Halo)

Let’s move on from Fighting Games to Halo. In our ninth spot, we present to you Frosty. He has earned about $686,000 over the years from his tournament wins in Halo and Call Of Duty. That makes him the highest-earning Halo player of all time. Most likely, Call of Duty fans will know him because he left his mark on the scene during the Blackops 4 era. But he’s a Halo legend first and foremost, winning two championships in a row in 2016 with CLG and 2017 with Optic. Now he’s back in Halo after joining the Sentinels in 2020, looking to take home even more trophies and the dollars that come with them.

8. Loki (PUBG)

For our next spot, we’re making a jump of more than $200,000. We’re talking about the highest-earning PUBG player of all time: Loki. If there’s a PUBG tournament anywhere, you can almost say with 100 percent probability that Loki will either win it or die trying. The South Korean superstar has been on Gen.G for over three years and has won multiple titles, including the 2019 World Championship, helping him win more than $980,000 in tournaments. Meanwhile, he plays for Damwon Gaming Kia and he makes no plans to stop soon.

7. Serral (StarCraft 2)

After earning more than $900,000 in his Starcraft career, it’s no wonder that Serral ends up in 7th place. Serral is a Starcraft prodigy and one of the most exciting non-Korean players in Starcraft history. In 2018, he became the first foreign player to ever win a global World Championship final. Serral hails from a small farming village in Finland, but despite his humble beginnings, he has decimated just about every Starcraft opponent he has played against. Serral’s winnings are around $912,000 and with Starcraft tournaments being held online due to the COVID pandemic, Serral is quite happy to cash his checks from home.

6. Feg (Shadow Verse)

Making it to #6 is a newcomer who also happens to be our first million-dollar player – Feg, the richest Shadow Verse player of all time. Although he entered the 2018 Shadow Verse Grand Prix as an underdog, he managed to win the competition and take home the top prize of $1 million. The crazy thing is that this single win accounted for the majority of his earnings and catapulted him to this list. His total earnings are $1 million, but trust us, he’s far from the richest player on this list.

5. Crimsix (CoD)

In the fifth place, we have a player who might be considered toxic, but Crimsix is only interested in one thing: winning at any cost. He is arguably the best Call of Duty player and then it is no wonder that he has already taken home staggering prize money. Crimsix has earned about $1.4 million in tournaments over the years, and that’s partly because he’s won a lot of them, too. But you also have to remember that he’s been in all of the Call of Duty titles for a decade now, and that just adds up to a lot of prize money. When he parted ways with OpTic in 2019, some doubted that he could stay on top, but Crimsix was able to prove everyone wrong and went on to win another world title.

4. Faker (LoL)

In 4th place comes the richest League of Legends player of all time, who earned $1.4 million in prize money. We are talking about none other than the Unkillable Demon King Faker. After bursting onto the scene in 2013, it didn’t take him long to become the undisputed GOAT. Faker has won 10 titles in the LCK, twice in the MSI, and is the only player to ever win the League of Legends Worlds three times. He has also been in the league for a decade and has earned about $1.4 million from all the tournaments he has won. But probably his fortune is even bigger considering that he is part owner of T1 and has some sponsorship deals going on, let alone from his income as an esports pro. Even though there were rumors that he will retire soon, the 26-year-old is playing for T1 again this season and it doesn’t look like that will change soon.

3. dupreeh (CS:GO)

With a big jump, we land on third place in the $2 million range with the highest-earning CS:GO player: dupreeh. He has been one of the best players in CS:GO for years and is one of only six players to have participated in every single major. Dupreeh, however, has not only participated in tournaments but along with his teammates from Astralis, has won more CS:GO majors than anyone else in the game. According to Esport Earnings, dupreeh has earned $2.03 million, which is only a few thousand dollars more than what his mates xyp9x and dev1ce have earned. But really, no core Astralis player ever has to worry about anyone overtaking them in terms of prize money. 

2. Bugha (Fortnite)

With the next big jump to three million dollars, we present to you Bugha, the richest Fortnite player of all time and probably he is also one of the richest kids on the planet who became super successful all at once, something most pros can only dream of. He played his first big tournament in 2018, the Quads event, which took place in a Microsoft building and where he took home a share of $5,000. This amount seems really paltry compared to the prize money he won the next year. Bugha won the Fortnite World Championship and with it, he also won three million dollars, which brings his total tournament winnings up to 3.1 million. This win has brought him fame and at the same time made him one of the richest esports players of all time not playing Dota.

1. N0tail (Dota 2)

On the first place of our list is of course the Big Daddy himself: N0tail. He is the richest Dota player of all time with $7.1 million, but his former teammates from OG aren’t that far behind him either. In fact, the 20 richest esports players of all time are all Dota players, and the players in the top 5 spots all played for OG, which won The International twice in a row in 2018 and 2019. Dota players earn the most from prize pools due to the incredible prize pools of The International tournaments, which no other Esport title can top. At TI9, there was a prize pool of $34 million, which means that even finishing fifth made you an instant millionaire. But even players who haven’t won a TI are among the richest esports players. Arteezy is ranked 30th among the highest-earning players, even though he has never won a TI or Valve Major. So he still earns more than all other non-Dota players except Bugha. As for Notail, who has twice cashed the biggest check in the sport and wins a lot in other tournaments anyway, his true net worth is of course even bigger. Definitely big enough to treat himself to his new villa in Portugal, for example.