Due to its competitive nature, Esports is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. The earnings of the top players within the eSports leagues are insanely high and they are popular like rockstars. Even the betting industry takes part and you already can do bitcoin betting in eSports.
During the last decade, gaming became bigger every year. Its revenue also grew very fast and is now bigger than ever and is now even bigger than the worldwide box office, music industry, the NFL, the NBA, MLB, and the NHL combined.
Who are the most popular and successful eSports players of our time? Athletes like Faker and Xyp9x are definitely among the TOP 5. Measured by their wins and earnings, their popularity is also dependent on their viewership and reputation on social media and streaming platforms like Twitch.
Let‘s start with probably the most successful and popular League Of Legends player of the last decade.
#1 Faker
Lee Sang-hyeok (aka Faker) is known as one of the most successful players to date. The combination of awesome skill and keen strategy earned him multimillion-dollar winnings till his first competition in 2013. His high earnings during the years made him the top earner in League Of Legends, 3 years in a row.
Faker won three world titles while being part of the team of South Korean Telecom. In one competition, he did not lose a single game in the whole tournament. This achievement was never accomplished by anyone else.
His total earnings are unknown but it is rumored that he gets around $1 to 2 million dollars from South Korean Telecom every year. In addition to that, he gets money from his Twitch streaming.
Recently, Faker was offered a partnership from SK Telecom, which he happily accepted and now he owns a part of the team he plays for.
After we talked about League Of Legends, let’s get right into the next competitive and highly hyped eSports game, Counterstrike Global Offensive.
#1 Xyp9x
Andreas Højsleth (aka Xyp9x), one of the elite members of Astralis has been playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professionally for a long time and was very successful with it.
He is without any question one of the greatest CS:GO players of all time and is also known as the minister of the clutch. His weird name was created by him randomly typing on his keyboard.
Clutch master placed 1st in 2017s ELEAGUE Major ATL by dominating the tournament with his team.
From 2017 on Xyp9x played plenty of tournaments and till 2020 he placed first in over 80% of the tournaments he took place in.
Xyp9x is the most successful CS:GO, player of all time, when it comes to his earnings. His net worth is around two million dollars and his team earns around $800k each year.
Conclusion
These two incredibly successful eSports players are just the essence of nowadays eSports and its reach. This is a multibillion-dollar industry we are talking about. ESports will be the #1 sport of the future, so we are thrilled to see its development during the next few years.
Thomas Hawthorne is a contributor to Nintendo-power.com, covering a broad range of topics including news, business, technology, entertainment, lifestyle, and current affairs. He focuses on delivering clear, accurate, and accessible reporting that helps readers stay informed about important developments and emerging trends. With a reader-first approach, Thomas aims to provide useful context, balanced insights, and engaging stories that reflect the issues, events, and interests shaping everyday life.