E-Sports have taken the world by storm. Professional gaming becomes more and more popular with each year. Back in the day, every kid wanted to become an athlete superstar, today, kids dream about winning big in front of a computer screen. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Video-games are not only fun, but they can also be a very lucrative time investment. As long as you have the talent for it of course. Here are the world’s best earning video-game tournament competitors!
Dota 2
Content Summary
Dota 2 is one of the world’s most popular games. It is known for its rich history, starting as a mod to a strategy game Warcraft III and its highly competitive mechanics. Dota 2‘s tournaments are definitely world’s highest paying events in the history. This is why the entire top 10 highest earning e-sport players are Dota 2 players.
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10. GH
GH is a Lebanese Dota 2 player, currently playing for Nigma Galaxy. GH became recognized after briefly reaching Europe’s highest in-game rating. He plays a support role and started his career in Wired Gaming, he has also played for Team Liquid, with which he won The International 2017 championship.
9. MinD_ContRol
This Bulgarian player also managed to secure himself a large pool of money by winning The 2017 International championship alongside Team Liquid. Much like GH, he now plays for Nigma Galaxy. He is best known for his spectacular skill with his signature hero “The Dark Seer”
8. MATUMBAMAN
Coming from Finland, this currently retired professional Dota 2 player, has won multiple major events including The International 2017 tournament. He has been seen in rosters of various professional organizations such as Team Liquid, Chaos EC, Team Secret and 5Jungz.
7. Miracle-
Jordanian-Polish Dota 2 player is a former OG and Team Liquid superstar. Much like other players mentioned in this list, he has been one of the winners of the 2017 Internationals championship, as well as he now plays for the team Nigma Galaxy.
6. KuroKy
Kuro is regarded as one of the greatest Dota 2 MVPs. When he was younger, he suffered from leg disabilities, he stated that this was what led him to play video-games and go on to become on of the best Dota 2 players in the world. He now plays for Nigma Galaxy but has been playing in an abundance of professional teams such as mousesports, Virtus.pro, Team Zero, Natus Vincere and Team Liquid. He has also dabbled in professional scene for the original Dota. Kuro has also been one of the winners of the 2017 Intenationals.
5. Topson
Topson is another impressive talent coming from Finland. Topias Taavitsainen has won numerous tournaments including The 2018 and The 2019 Internationals. He is playing to this day for a well-recognized team OG.
4. Ceb
Ceb is a French player who throughout his career played for 15 different professional Dota 2 teams. He is now retired but went on to becoming one of the best known Dota 2 players in history. He also tried himself in the role of the coach for the team OG. Ceb has won multiple meaningful events such as The International 2018, The International 2019 and ESL One Stockholm 2022.
3. ana
Ana is an australian professional player. Early in his career he moved to Shanghai to better pursue his e-sports career. He has been mostly playing for team OG and also briefly retired. He has since came back to the scene and joined T1. Ana has been one of the winners of The Boston Major 2016, The Kiev Major 2017, The International 2018 and The International 2019.
2. JerAx
Much can be said about JerAx, but the most important thing is that he is an amazing Dota 2 player. Once again, coming from Finland, JerAx has played for a lot of different teams and is currently serving as the Coach for Team Liquid. JerAx has won The EPICENTER 2016 tournament, The Boston 2016 Major, The Kiev Major 2017 as well as The Internationals in 2018 and 2019. His teams have also taken over the second place in a few major events.
1. N0tail
N0tail is probably Dota 2’s all-time greatest player. He has managed to win over 7 million USD in prize money. This Dannish-Faroesian player has captained for the best of the Dota 2 teams out there. He has played for team OG as well as Fnatic and Cloud9 among others. He has scored wins in the International 2018 and 2019 as well as has won 6 different majors over the span of 3 years.
| No. | Player ID | Name | Nationality | Tournament Earnings |
| 1. | N0tail | Johan Sundstein | Denmark/Faroe Islands | $7,172,436.83 |
| 2. | JerAx | Jesse Vainikka | Finland | $6,486,400.02 |
| 3. | ana | Anathan Pham | Australia | $6,024,411.96 |
| 4. | Ceb | Sébastien Debs | France | $5,823,909.40 |
| 5. | Topson | Topias Taavitsainen | Finland | $5,690,417.57 |
| 6. | KuroKy | Kuro Takhasomi | Germany | $5,274,624.39 |
| 7. | Miracle- | Amer Al-Barkawi | Jordan/Poland | $4,877,285.26 |
| 8. | MATUMBAMAN | Lasse Urpalainen | Finland | $4,873,411.04 |
| 9. | MinD_ContRol | Ivan Ivanov | Bulgaria | $4,660,359.74 |
| 10. | GH | Maroun Merhej | Lebanon | $4,274,654.27 |