Not a single female esports player makes it into the list of the top 100 richest players, as a new study reveals the most lucrative games.
They may not be able to stay at the top of their game for long but the biggest esports players are able to earn huge amounts of money, with the richest player in the world at the moment being Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein.
Sundstein has earned £5,305,756 at the age of 26, while also being the captain of team OG, who are now two times world champions at Dota 2.
According to information compiled by OLBG the top 10 earning players in the world all play Dota 2 and are all men – with not a single woman in the whole top 100.
The top earner amongst female players is Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn, who’s made just £269,080 from playing StarCraft 2.
The top 100 men have earned £148 million between them, while the top 100 women have earned just £2.2 million.
Obviously, there are many more high-level male players, but the industry’s inability to nurture female talent has created a huge wage gap in the one area of sports where men and women should be competing equally.
As you’d expect, given the top male players, Dota 2 is by far the most lucrative game to play, with a total of £168,703,639 in prize money having been awarded to 3,532 players across 1,284 tournaments.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, also published by Valve, doesn’t come anywhere close, with a total of £66,571,340 across 12,282 players and 4,401 tournaments. With Fortnite and League Of Legends having similar totals in third and four place.
In terms of country rankings the results are predictable, with the US being number one on £101,880,965 and China in second place with £80,411,659. Although the US has over 10,000 more active professional players, so theoretically it should be much further ahead.
South Korea is in third place on £65,764,558, then it’s a big drop to Sweden and Denmark. The UK isn’t anywhere in the top 10.
In fact, there’s only one British player in the entire top 100 earners list, with Fortnite player Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman making it to number 73 with £877,821 earned.
Although British player Sarah ‘Sarah Lou’ Harrison is tenth in the female players list, with a haul of £38,500.
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