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Who are the highest-earning esports players of all time?

Sports Writer

Publish Date: 06/11/2025

Key Points

Highest-earning esports players are dominated by Dota 2 pros thanks to The International's massive prize pools
N0tail still leads all-time with over $7 million won from tournament prizes alone
Non-Dota players like Bugha and top CS:GO pros crack the list through single-event wins or long-term consistency

Highest-Earning Esports Players of All Time – Dota 2 Dominates

This highest-earning esports players list isn’t about sponsors, streaming numbers, or org salaries. It’s about what these players actually got from tournaments alone. And spoiler, Dota 2 still runs the show.

The all-time top earners in esports are dominated by Dota 2 players, a direct legacy of The International’s once-massive, community-funded prize pools. Some of these legends haven’t touched a stage in years, but their winnings are still towering. This article looks at the numbers, highlights the most iconic careers, and explains why nearly every name at the top came from the same game.

Highest-Earning Esports Players of All Time

Methodology & scope

Let’s keep this simple. The list is based on publicly reported tournament winnings only at the time of writing. That means it doesn’t include:

Salaries
Contracts
Brand deals
Streaming revenue
Appearance fees.

These are the cold, hard cash totals won directly in official events that you will see on esports news. Some numbers shift after majors (especially in Dota or CS), and player earnings may vary by contracts and team splits.

The top 10 highest-earning esports players of all time

These ten players lead the all-time prize money charts.

Player (Country)	Primary Game	Career Prize Money (USD)
1️⃣ Johan “N0tail” Sundstein (Denmark)	Dota 2	$7,184,163.05
2️⃣ Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka (Finland)	Dota 2	$6,486,623.98
3️⃣ Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov (Russia)	Dota 2	$6,227,771.49
4️⃣ Anathan “ana” Pham (Australia)	Dota 2	$6,024,411.96
5️⃣ Sébastien “Ceb” Debs (France)	Dota 2	$5,949,442.73
6️⃣ Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov (Russia)	Dota 2	$5,940,111.07
7️⃣ Ilya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk (Ukraine)	Dota 2	$5,932,736.05
8️⃣Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen (Finland)	Dota 2	$5,898,810.60
9️⃣ Miroslaw “Mira” Kolpakov (Ukraine)	Dota 2	$5,638,899.05
🔟 Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi (Germany)	Dota 2	$5,295,698.85

What got them here

Here’s how some of these legends hit seven figures, and stayed there.

Johan “N0tail” Sundstein (OG)

The all-time #1 was the heart of OG’s historic back-to-back TI runs in 2018 and 2019. As team captain and co-founder, N0tail banked over $7 million in prize money, most of it from those two tournaments alone. After that, he stepped back from competing and focused more on coaching, content, and building the OG brand. But no one’s touched his earnings lead since.

Johan âN0tailâ Sundstein (OG)

Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka (OG)

A support god in the truest sense. JerAx was instrumental in OG’s TI dominance, pulling off game-winning plays on Earth Spirit, Rubick, and Tusk. His prize pool total surged with the same back-to-back wins as N0tail, then held strong even after his brief retirement and eventual return. It’s a perfect example of peak-era timing.

Jesse âJerAxâ Vainikka (OG)

Miposhka, Collapse, Yatoro, Mira (Team Spirit)

This core exploded onto the global radar after winning TI10 in 2021, the highest prize pool in history. That win alone got each player millions. Add in Spirit’s consistent finishes and a decent run at TI14 in 2025, and all four now sit comfortably in the all-time top ten. Their earnings reflect not just a fluke win, but long-term staying power.

Sébastien “Ceb” Debs / Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen

Ceb and Topson were the engine and wild card behind OG’s miracle runs. Ceb’s offlane calls, and Topson’s unpredictable mid style made them household names. Both players took breaks and returned, and both still collected enough prize money to land in the top 10.

SÃ©bastien âCebâ Debs Topias âTopsonâ Taavitsainen

Why almost everyone at the top plays Dota 2

One word: The International.

Until recently, TI was the biggest prize pool in all of esports, often by a factor of 3–5x. The 2019 edition (TI9) offered $34.33 million total. OG won, with about $15.6 million going to the team, or around $3.1 million per player. That kind of money doesn’t just change a year, it defines careers. And Dota 2’s Battle Pass model made it all possible. 25% of every cosmetic sale went straight to the TI prize pool. Even as that system faded post-2022, the legacy remains baked into the rankings.

Compare that to games like League of Legends, CS, or Valorant, where annual prize pools are strong but rarely climb above $2M–$3M. In those games, consistency matters more than jackpots.

The biggest outliers (not from Dota 2)

Still, a few names outside of Dota 2 made big waves:

Player	Game	Career Prize Money (USD)
Bugha	Fortnite	$3.78M
Dupreeh	Counter-Strike	$2.23M
dev1ce	Counter-Strike	$2.11M
karrigan	Counter-Strike	$2.10M
ropz	Counter-Strike	$2.05M
YiNuo	Honor of Kings (Mobile)	$2.0M
paraboy	PUBG Mobile	$1.45M

Bugha (Fortnite)

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf famously won $3 million in the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Solos, the entire grand prize. That single event locked him into the top 25 all-time. As of now, Bugha’s total sits at $3.78M, and no other Fortnite player is close.

Bugha (Fortnite)

Counter-Strike legends

CS doesn’t have TI-scale events, but it’s been around forever, and that consistency pays. Dupreeh leads the CS field with $2.23M, followed closely by dev1ce ($2.11M), karrigan ($2.10M), and ropz ($2.05M). These guys grinded year after year, across Majors and IEMs and everything in between.

Dupreeh

Mobile esports standouts

On the mobile side, YiNuo (Honor of Kings) now sits just above $2M, while PUBG Mobile’s paraboy has crossed $1.45M. These are huge numbers for mobile, and signs of how those ecosystems are growing, even if they haven’t matched Dota’s top-tier yet.

Mobile esports standouts

The list is unlikely to change any time soon

With Valve scaling back The International’s prize pool, down to around $2.9M total in 2025, we’re unlikely to see another $3M+ winner anytime soon.

That said, the rise of events like Riyadh Masters or Esports World Cup means there are still massive paydays out there. A surprise win at one of those could shake things up, especially for newer players in CS2, Dota 2, or mobile titles. The other way this list shifts is longevity. Players like ropz and Yatoro are still active. A couple more years of high placements could push them even higher, maybe into that top five.

Mouse movements that paid the mortgage

This isn’t just a list for pub quiz bragging rights, it’s a who’s-who of gamers who turned clicking heads into stacking bread. Some got here off one absurdly good weekend. Others grinded so long they probably got a pension from LANs. But in every case, it took more than cracked aim. It took timing and picking the right game before the prize pool dried up.

So no, prize money isn’t everything… but it sure makes that 14-hour-a-day button bashing session a little more worth it.