More and more people are interested in eSports and earning a living from gaming. But not all games are created equal, and not every game is worth it. We show you which games offer the biggest payouts.
What kind of games are these? In our list, you will find games that have previously paid out the largest amounts. It doesn’t matter if it’s a shooter, MOBA, or strategy game. Many genres are represented, but only competitive games yield the highest profits.
How do I make money with games? To earn money as a pro gamer, you need to be one of the best players. This requires training and often a good team.
eSports can be quite demanding. According to a study, eSports professionals experience the same level of stress as professional football players.
Here’s how we proceeded: To see which games can earn you the most money when played professionally, we considered three categories:
- What is the prize pool in the tournaments?
- How much money has a game paid out so far?
- What do the top players earn?
For the figures, we gathered data from esportsearnings.com and liquipedia . The result is the following list.
Rank 1: Dota 2
What is Dota 2? Dota 2 is the spiritual successor of the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients. It is a MOBA where teams of five players compete against each other on a map with 3 lanes.
The objective is to destroy the opposing team’s main building (Ancient). Teams gain experience and gold, learn abilities, and purchase items.
Dota 2 has a prize pool of 218 million $ (about 198 million €), making it the game with the largest prize pool by far. Dota 2 even had the largest prize pool of all time.
What tournaments are there? Most Dota 2 tournaments take place offline. Very few games with prize pools are held online. To participate, players must be willing to travel to tournaments and potentially train offline with their team.
Individual tournaments occur less frequently, and the annual Internationals offer the largest rewards. In 2019, the prize pool for the Internationals was 34.3 million $.
The earnings for top players in Dota 2:
| Name | Earnings (2019) | Total Earnings |
| Johan “N0tail” Sundstein | 3.15 million $ | 6.89 million $ |
| Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka | 3.16 million $ | 6.47 million $ |
| Anathan “ana” Pham | 3.14 million $ | 6 million $ |
How hard is it/Who is it suitable for? Dota 2 is considered one of the most demanding games. The entry is already difficult, and countless heroes, abilities, and mechanics, as well as their counters, must be learned. Additionally, it requires a high mechanical skill for farming to be stronger than the opponent.
Matches often last 40 minutes or longer, making them quite exhausting. Those considering starting Dota 2 should bring a lot of patience and determination.
Rank 2: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
What is CS:GO? CS:GO is the latest installment in the popular Counter-Strike series. Counter-Strike is one of the most famous, possibly even the most famous shooter games.
Players face off in 5 player teams, terrorists against anti-terror units. The objective is to plant or defuse a bomb.
CS:GO has a total prize pool of 85.6 million $, placing it just ahead of rank 3. The top player with the highest earnings is still below the professionals in many other games. However, there are so many professionals among the top earners that this income alone surpasses that of others.
What tournaments are there? Like Dota 2, most tournaments for CS:GO also take place offline. However, the prize pools are significantly smaller here.
What defines tournaments in CS:GO is that they occur much more frequently. There are many tournaments that each offer a prize pool of several hundred thousand to millions of dollars.
Here, you can count on winning smaller prizes more often rather than risking your luck in a big way and failing. CS:GO is a “safer” bet.
The earnings for top players in CS:GO:
| Name | Earnings (2019) | Total Earnings |
| Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth | 308,100 $ | 1.62 million $ |
| Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen | 307,7000 $ | 1.62 million $ |
| Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz | 304,700 $ | 1.58 million $ |
How hard is it/Who is it suitable for? Counter-Strike requires stronger mechanical skills and reaction times compared to Dota 2, but it is also slightly easier to learn. There is less to consider, and the selection of weapons, equipment, and strategies is more manageable.
Anyone choosing CS:GO as a profession should prepare to frequently train their reflexes and search for ideal settings for graphics, UI, and mouse speed.
Rank 3: Fortnite
What is Fortnite? Fortnite is the colorful battle royale game from Epic. It follows in the footsteps of genre giants PUBG and DayZ but combines classic BR with clever building elements.
In Fortnite, players compete alone or in teams in a 100-player battle, searching for weapons and gear while trying to be the last one standing in the ever-shrinking area of the map.
Fortnite has paid out over 84 million $ in prize money so far.
What tournaments are there? In Fortnite, a little over half of the total prize money is awarded in online tournaments. The most expensive event to date was the Fortnite World Cup 2019, with a prize pool of over 15 million $ in the solo and duo categories.
Even in online tournaments like the Champion Series, prize money of 480,000 $ (over a million in the pool) is available.
The earnings for top players in Fortnite:
| Name | Earnings (2019) | Total Earnings |
| Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf | 3.06 million $ | 3.06 million $ |
| Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka | 1.82 million $ | 1.82 million $ |
| David “Aqua” Wang | 1.79 million $ | 1.79 million $ |
How hard is it/Who is it suitable for? Similar to CS:GO, Fortnite demands mechanical skills along with good situational awareness. You need to keep an eye on where opponents are, as the map size is significantly larger compared to Counter-Strike.
In addition to shooting skills, you need good abilities in fast building. However, as Fortnite is a relatively young eSport, entry might be a bit easier.
Rank 4: League of Legends
What is League of Legends? League of Legends, or LoL for short, is similar to Dota 2, a MOBA and a spiritual successor to DotA. The studio Riot, now owned by Tencent, has put its own stamp on the game.
In LoL, you compete with various champions in teams of three or five players against other teams. The standard mode is 5vs5 on a 3-lane map. Like in Dota 2, you need to farm gold, defeat opponents, and destroy the enemy’s core.
LoL has paid out a total of 73 million $ in prize money so far.
What tournaments are there? Like most top eSports titles, the largest prizes in LoL come from offline tournaments. The annual World Championships, for example, feature prize pools between 2 and 6.45 million $.
Interestingly, many fans enjoy watching LoL tournaments but do not play themselves.
The earnings for top players in LoL:
| Name | Earnings (2019) | Total Earnings |
| Lee “Faker” Sank-hyeok | 78,313 $ | 1.25 million $ |
| Lee “Duke” Ho-heong | 33,509 $ | 954,620 $ |
| Song “Rookie” Eui-jin | 79,467 $ | 610,207 $ |
Note: Some players have earned more overall than Rookie, but did not record earnings from LoL in 2019 (yet).
How hard is it/Who is it suitable for? Generally, the skills required for League of Legends are similar to those needed for Dota 2. However, the game itself is somewhat easier to learn because there are fewer mechanics, such as no courier mechanics.
The entry into the game is slightly easier due to a somewhat lighter farm phase, and matches typically do not last as long as in Dota 2.
The strongest players in League of Legends, however, come from Korea and China. Unlike the previous games, there is no Western nation among the top 3 nationalities of professionals. Therefore, entering the eSports might be difficult due to a lack of good teams.
Rank 5: Starcraft 2
What is Starcraft 2? The last place in our top 5 is held by the strategy game Starcraft 2. The successor to the strategy hit Starcraft comes from Blizzard and belongs to the genre of real-time strategy.
In Starcraft 2, you choose one of three possible races and typically battle your opponents in eSports in a 1vs1 format. You build bases at a rapid speed, train units, and lead them into battle.
The prize pool for Starcraft 2 has been 32 million $ so far.
What tournaments are there? Starcraft 2 also relies on offline tournaments. Only about one-eighth of the prize money is awarded online.
The largest and most important tournaments are the World Championships, whose finals are held annually at BlizzCon.
A key figure in eSports for Starcraft 2 has left Blizzard in June.
The earnings for top players in Starcraft 2:
| Name | Earnings (2019) | Total Earnings |
| Cho “Maru” Sung-choo | 113,891 $ | 808,551 $ |
| Joona “Serral” Sotala | 196,207 $ | 758,661 $ |
| Park “Dark” Ryung-woo | 295,487 $ | 753,039 $ |
How hard is it/Who is it suitable for? To be good at Starcraft 2, you must master two things: micro and macro management. You must simultaneously build your base, plan expansions, and keep track of your own and the opponent’s troops.
Additionally, there are extremely high requirements for your possible actions per minute (APM). You should be able to give as many (correct) commands in a short time as possible.
However, unlike all other games on our list, Starcraft 2 offers the advantage that you can win alone. You don’t play in a team but in a 1vs1 format. Therefore, victory and defeat depend solely on you.
I don’t like any of these games – what else is there?
Other games where you can still make money: If none of these games appeal to you, there are other games where you can earn money. However, prize pools here are usually not as high or as accessible as in the top 5:
| Name | Genre | Total Prize Pool |
| Overwatch | Shooter | 21.19 million $ |
| Hearthstone | Card game | 18.9 million $ |
| PUBG | Battle Royale | 15.03 million $ |
| Arena of Valor | Mobile MOBA | 11.38 million $ |
| SMITE | MOBA | 8.64 million $ |
This list should also include Heroes of the Storm, as a lot of money was also awarded here. However, the eSports for Heroes of the Storm has been officially discontinued.
This is the alternative to eSports: If you want to make money from gaming, you don’t necessarily have to become a pro. There are also possibilities to stream. Streamers can not only impress with good gameplay but also with personality. The advantage:
- You can play whatever you want
- You play from home
- No obligations to teams
However, as a streamer, you are self-employed and generally do not earn the salary of an eSports professional. However, anyone can easily start and try it out:
