How Much Do Esports Gamers Make? Pro Player Statistics in 2025

Depending on the player’s performance and the popularity of the game, esports players can earn anywhere from $12,000 to $187,200 a year.

Dive into interesting professional gaming statistics to learn:

• What is the average global and US salary for esports gamers
• Who are the highest-earning gamers, and what game offers the highest prizes
• What country has the most esports players, and which one earned the most money from prizes

How Much Do Gamers Make (Top Stats)

• Professional esports gamers can earn anywhere from $12,000 to $187,200 per year, excluding extra sponsorships and bonuses.
• Until now, more than 138 professional gamers earned more than $1 million, with N0tail leading the pack with more than $7 million in earnings.
• With more than $143 million given in prizes, Fortnite is the game with the highest prizes, whereas Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has awarded the most players and held the most tournaments.
• Chinese esports gamers earned a total of $217 million in prizes compared to USA’s $210 million, despite China having 3 times more pro players.

How much do esports players make?

How many esports players earn a salary?

The highest-paid esports players

What are the highest-paying esports games?

The highest-paying esports gamers, by game

How Much Do Esports Gamers Make?

• Depending on the game’s popularity, esports salaries can range from $6,000 to $420,000 per year.

That’s without the prizes they might earn by winning esports tournaments, money from sponsors, and receiving other kinds of bonuses.

As you can see, salaries range heavily depending on the player’s skill, the game he/she is playing, and the team. Top-ranking professional esports teams from Dota 2 and League of Legends pay their members hefty amounts.

Here’s a table of how salaries can vary depending on how good the players are and which popular esports title they’re playing:

Read more about the Rocket League.

But the esports world of competitive gaming is a hard job…

How long do pro gamers spend playing games daily?

• Professional gamers spend an average of 12 to 18 hours per day playing games.

That can have adverse health effects on players, such as exhaustion, injuries, negative impact on social life, and symptoms of burning out. This is playing with video game addiction.

An average gamer spends less time playing in a week, around 8 hours, than a pro in a day.

(Cyber Athletiks)

How Much Does a Gamer Make a Month?

• The average salary of a professional esports gamer is between $500 to $35,000 per month.

As seen from the table above, their salary is based on the game they’re playing and how skilled they are.

(AFK)

• For example, looking at the highest earners in esports, Johan Sundstein (N0tail) earned an average of $598,680 each year, or $49,890 each month, salary and prizes included.

On the other hand, Markus Wallsten (pronax), who sits in the 1000th place among the highest esports earners, earned an average of $23,507 a year, or $1,959 a month.

(Esportsearnings 2)

How Much Do Professional Gamers Make a Year?

The esports earnings of professional gamers vary greatly based on skill level and the game they compete in:

• A top-tier esports gamer, on average, makes $314,833 per year.
• An average esports gamer earns an estimated $104,063 per year.
• A low-ranking esports gamer makes around $40,032 per year.

The number is calculated using the salary data, sponsorship money, and rewards of average-ranking players from the table of salaries above. It’s an estimation, not a precise number.

Here’s the table of average annual salaries based on the gamer rank, using the previous data:

• Good streamers can pull between $1,500 and $2,000 monthly from streaming.

(Esports Grizzly)

And for streaming you need a top quality gaming headset with a clear gaming microphone that won’t annoy the viewers.

How much do professional gamers make in the US?

• The average American pro gamer earns $64,168 per year.

Here’s a more detailed range of US esports players’ annual salaries:

• Looking at the highest American earners in esports, Kyle Giersdorf (Bugha) earned a total of $3,491,162, salary and prizes included.

Or an average of $698,232 per year.

On the other hand, Nick Costello (mist), who sits in the 995th place among the highest esports earners, earned a total of 238,132 (or $47,626 per year).

(Esportsearnings 2)

How Many Esports Players Earn a Salary?

• 36% of Finnish esports organizations paid their esports players a salary in 2020.

18% of organizations used result-based compensation and bonuses, with the other 18% giving some players a salary. 64% of players received other kinds of compensation.

The survey contained 11 organizations.

(KAMK)

How Much Top Gamers Make: The Highest-Paid Esports Players

• Esports player N0tail (real name Johan Sundstein from Denmark) is the highest-paid professional gamer, he’s earned more than $7 million.

Here’s the breakdown of the highest-earning esports players, total earnings throughout their careers, and what game made them the most money:

• At least 138 professional gamers earned more than $1 million.

Furthermore, more than 1000 gamers earned more than $100,000.

(Esportsearnings)

What are The Highest-Paying Esports Games?

• Dota 2 is the highest-paying game in terms of the prize pool, already awarding $310,338,833 to 4508 players across 1707 esports competitions.

• China is the largest esports earner in the world, with 6387 esports athletes earning $217,718,754 combined.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Global esports revenue is expected to reach $1.38 billion in 2022.

That’s more than $200 million compared to 2021.

The highest-paid esports gamers by the game

• N0tail is also the highest earner in Dota 2, collecting approximately $7,172,436 in prizes.

Earnings in Dota 2 represent 99.84% of all N0tail’s earnings.

How Do Professional Gamers Make Money?

Professional gamers earn money from various sources:

• Tournament prize money
• Salary
• Sponsors: Just to stream playthroughs, sponsors can pay anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 per hour, depending on how “big” the streamer is (Quora)
• Bonuses: Gamers can receive a bonus worth up to $20,000 per tournament if they win (allTop9)
• Streaming (Twitch’s cut is usually 50/50, but some streamers were able to negotiate a 30/70 cut to retain more earnings)
• Online videos (like posting videos on YouTube or other platforms where they can be monetized)

Read more:

• Little-Known Metaverse Statistics
• Discord users

Conclusion

This is a little glimpse of how much do esports players make by playing video games at a high level.

You have to keep in mind that while working in the esports industry sounds like a dream job, in reality, it’s extremely physically exhausting. So those high paychecks are well deserved.

Have you ever played professionally? What video game did you play and did you earn any money? We’d be curious to know, so leave a comment below.

Sources: Esports Grizzly, CNBC, Weplay Esports, Comparably, Esportsearnings, Esportsearnings 2, Esportsearnings 3, Esportsearnings 4, Esportsearnings 5, Quora, allTop9, Teknos, KAMK, SBJ, Cyber Athletiks, youRshape, hotspawn, ZipRecruiter, ZipRecruiter 2, 2k League, CoD League, LeagueFeed, Novint, AFK