ESPORTS: WHY & HOW TO INTEGRATE IT IN YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY?
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Published on August, 9th 2022
Esports players are the new footballers: they make millions of people dream about becoming like them! Even if they earn (much) less money through their salary (which rarely goes public) and competition earnings, approximately $92M has been publicly distributed to winners and well placed players and teams since the beginning of the year. The escalating amounts of cashprizes are a direct result of their marketing power for tournaments organizers: the more you can earn winning it, the more competition, show and prestigious teams there will be!
Let’s discover the top 5 most paid esports players in terms of cashprize
TOP 5
🇦🇺 Rhye “Zer0” Perry (22 yo), DarkZero esports - Apex Legends
Zer0 is a young Australian prodigy playing Apex Legends which recently won the ALGS ( Apex Legends Global Series) in July 2021: the biggest Apex Legends tournament so far. By placing first with his 2 teammates (Sharky & Genburten), he personally earned $166,000, for a total of $252,000 in 2022. This year became the most profitable since the beginning of his career in 2019.
But don’t get tricked by his young age, Zer0 has a great palmares: he regularly ranks TOP 1 in online tournaments and finally converted his hardwork and great results into the biggest win of his career.
TOP 4
🇩🇪 Umut "Umut" Gültekin (18 yo) - FIFA 22
Umut is now undoubtedly part of the esports FIFA prodigies. He started competition in 2022 and after two decent competitive years, he finally won the biggest FIFA esports event: the FIFA eWorld Cup 2022, in total control from the beginning to the grand final which he won against Nicolas99fc (Argentina) on July 17th. The $253,000
prize for winning the competition makes him the most paid FIFA player.
As he just started competing, his palmares isn't very large for now, but we can definitely count on him for the next big events in his favorite game!
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TOP 3
🇩🇰 Finn “Karrigan” Andersen (32 yo), FaZe Clan - CS:GO
Almost an ace for FaZe Clan and its Rifler, Karrigan, that won most of the majors they competed in 2022, such as: IEM XVII - Cologne, PGL Major Antwerp 2022, ESL Pro League, IEM XVI - Katowice… among many other good ranking. His total earnings skyrocketed to $309,000 (most profitable year since the beginning of his career in 2006), and his total esports earnings are now $1,34M!
He is the in-game leader of his team and the great experience he earned through the years of playing at top level allows him to keep proudly stand next to the best players in the world, even at 32 yo.
TOP 2
🇨🇳 Zhang “Faith_Bian” Ruida (24 yo), PSG.LGD - Dota 2
Great Offlaner from one of the best DOTA2 team, PSG.LGD, he recently won the Riyadh Master 2022, second biggest DOTA 2 tournament in terms of cashprize ($4M) right after the legendaryThe International. With more than $445,000 earned this year, he now cumulates a total of $3,6M competitive earnings, a real wealth for such a young player!
He also have one of the most impressive palmares in his favorite game: TI10 Finalist (2-3 Team Secret), TI6 winner with Wings, his previous team, and many other major victories through the years.
TOP 1
🇨🇳 Zeng "Order" Zehai (24 yo), Nova eSports - PUBG Mobile
We often talk about the strengh of Mobile esports that we underestimate a bit in Europe. The recent PMGC (PUBG Mobile Global Championship) proved us wrong once again with a successful 2021 edition (held in early 2022), by gathering up to 646,000 concurrent viewers for his final with a $3,5M cashprize reward. Order and his esports team Nova eSports (mostly taiwanese and chinese players) won the big prize, granting them each $306,000 and a second world champion title for him. His 2022 total earnings skyrocketed to $452,000, making him becoming the most payed esports player of 2022, any game.
He won may big tournaments, such as Peacekeeper Elite Ligue s3, and PMGC S0, and regularly ranked in top 3 of prestigious tournaments such as Peacekeeper Elite 2022 Spring.
As the year is not over, this ranking may change! However, here was a non-exhaustive list of the best paid esports players by their cashprize in 2022 as of 01/08/2022. We have deliberately selected only one player per major winning team, usually the one who has accumulated the most winnings in the year, in order to keep this top 5 readable. In total, 19 players of 9 different nationalities have surpassed the $250,000 mark in prize money this year, usually with major wins in World Championships or Majors!
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