Dota 2 is the most profitable esports game, but CS:GO is the most popular

According to Esports Charts, to date, the esports industry has played out over $1.684 billion in prize money across nearly 62,000 official tournaments of various scales. The most profitable discipline remains Dota 2, where participants have been paid about $377.4 million since 2011.

Rating of esports games

The top five disciplines with the largest prize money also included Fortnite with $202.9 million, Counter-Strike with $162.8 million, League of Legends, where the total fund reached $122 million, as well as the mobile Arena of Valor, the international version of the Chinese Honor of Kings.

Despite the smaller total payout, CS:GO leads the ranking in terms of the number of players who have received prizes at least once. There were 16,571 of them. Fortnite is in second place, with 10,900 participants receiving payouts, followed by Rocket League with 9,100 players. StarCraft II is the leader in terms of the number of tournaments held, with over 7,500 competitions held since its release. On average, this is over 502 tournaments per year, or about 41 tournaments per month.

The most profitable game is Dota 2

Dota 2 is again ahead in terms of the largest prize pools in tournaments. Competitions in this discipline occupy the first seven positions in the overall ranking of events with the largest funds and eight in the expanded sample. This result was ensured primarily by The International championship, especially the 2021 tournament, where a record of $40 million was set.

Dota 2 representatives also remain the highest paid professional players. The top ten places in the ranking are occupied by e-sportsmen who have repeatedly become winners of The International. Johan “n0tail” Sundstein leads, whose total earnings exceed $7.18 million.

The most successful e-sportswoman in the world is considered to be the Canadian countess Sasha Scarlett Hostyn, who plays in the StarCraft II discipline. Over her career, her prize money has reached $472 thousand.

In terms of total player earnings, China leads, where the total winnings reached $330.9 million, a significant share of which falls on Dota 2 tournaments. The United States is in second place, where most of the prize money received by e-sports players was received in Fortnite competitions.

If we consider the club indicators, Team Liquid remains at the top of the ranking, having earned over $56.3 million over the years of its existence and participated in almost 3,000 tournaments. The top five also includes the Ukrainian club Natus Vincere, whose earnings amounted to $24.4 million from participation in 870 competitions.

At the same time, the real income of players may differ significantly from the officially stated prize money, since the final amounts are affected by taxes, mandatory deductions in favor of the club, as well as income from contracts and additional sources.