The 10 Highest-Earning Esports Organizations in the World

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Esports depicts a season-long competitive series of electronic games where players create their own team and play the games: The most fascinating leagues are Fortnite, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Madden NFL, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, to name a few. Plenty of leagues and matches are becoming the center of attraction that attracts sports enthusiasts to play the games. 

Due to globalization, the ESports market calculated for $825 million in 2018 and is likely to reach $4126.58 million by 2027 flourishing at a CAGR of 19.6% during the forecast period. Some of the key factors motivating in the market growth are growing awareness, the popularity of video games, and growing demand for Esports. 

As the above figures are depicting a high growth rate of this specific industry, most of the youngsters and enterprises are thinking to put their leg in this field. Demand for Esports website development companies is growing at a fast pace. Business owners are striving to generate more revenue by developing Esports websites and are reaching their business to the next level. 

For video game players, an Esports Tournament has been planned. It emulates the art of presenting a proficient sports event, where crowds watch video gamers compete against each other. The esports income source is tickets and merchandise, sponsorships and advertisements, and media rights.

Here is a list of top 10 highest-earning Esports organizations in the world:

1. Team Liquid: 

Team-liquid is the world-best Esports organization that was established in 2000 in the Netherlands and started recruiting players for the leagues. Growth of this organization could be estimated from the beginning to the present time, Team liquid has earned $35 million dollars since 20 years ago. 

According to a recent report, Esports is ranked in the green and considered one of the busiest Esports organizations in the world. This organization has major sponsors that are Marvel, Honda, and Twitch. In 2019, Team liquid alone participated in 150+ events and earned $9.5 million worth winnings. 

Team Liquid is one of the highest-earning organizations that dominated Quake Champions in 2018, pulling in $197K total. They have played approx 1601 tournaments and earned $33,708,806.21 from esports prize money. Besides this Team Liquid is known for its top games including Dota, Counter-Strike, and StarCraft that have earned $17,336,099, $1,772,175, and $1,361,490.23 esports prize money respectively. 

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2. Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses is a San Francisco, California based Esports organization that was established in 1999. After the Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses is the second most popular Esports organization in the world that have various games like Call of Duty, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, StarCraft II, Rocket League, Dota 2, Fortnite Battle Royale, Halo, and World of Warcraft. 

Evil Geniuses is a North American eSports organization which has played 790 tournaments and earned $22,858,319.11 total prize money. If we talk about players and their earnings then major players are Peter Dager (ppd), Sumail Hassan (SumaiL), and Saahil Arora (UNiVeRsE) and their earnings are $2,599,54, $2,919,231 and $3,265,914 respectively. 

3. Team OG:

Team OG is a record-breaker organization that has earned $33,410,175.00 by playing 68 tournaments. Yes, it is more than Evil Geniuses. In 2015, when their players were going to Frankfurt, this team had defeated Evil Geniuses and Team Secret. 

The International in 2017. At that event, they declined their first series in the upper bracket and had to make a similar run through the lower bracket to reach the championship title. They won the best of 5 finals without dropping a game.

In the grand final match, Team Liquid and OG both did their best when OG picked 20 out of 14 heroes and Liquid picked 20 out of 16. The OG team has struggled a lot and due to this OG team has specialized in Dota 2 games. 

4.  Fnatic

Fnatic is a world-famous Esports organization which was established on 23rd July 2004, It is a UK based Esports organization. They have a wide range of players across the globe and the team has a variety of games including Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends, Apex Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PUBG Mobile, and Rainbow Six Siege. 

Fnatic has gained a reputation in Counter-Strike, from 2006 to 2012 their team won all the tournaments due to its powerful strategies and leadership. Apart from this Fnatic is specialist in League of Legend, Dota 2 and CS-GO. 

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London based Fnatic has earned $14,089,971.20  by playing 845 major tournaments. Fantic team has made a world record from CS-GO by which the team has earned $3,531,627 in the form of prize money. Top Players and Their Earnings: Jesper Wecksell (JW) – $679,188, Robin Rönnquist (flusha) – $687,864. 

5. Newbee

Newbee has made a Guinness World Record because Newbee won The International 2014 and won $5 million as prize money.  Newbee is a China based Esports organization that has played 174 tournaments and earned $13,960,187.82 prize money. Newbee had created history in Dota 2 but less known in western cities. 

Top players that recruited by Newbee are Zhang, Pan (Mu), Damien ChokX (kpii) and Zhi Hu (KaKa) and their earnings are $1,319,624, $1,351,665 and $1,352,240 respectively. Major leagues that are played by Newbee teams are Dota 2, Dota 2 (Newbee Young) and Hearthstone. 

6. Virtus.Pro

Russian based Virtus.Pro is a professional Esports organization that was founded in 2003. Virtus.Pro competitive strength is in   Hearthstone, Paladins, Quake Champions, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Starcraft II, and Heroes Of The Storm. 

In 2015,  Alisher Usmanov’s USM Holdings had invested over $100,000,000 USD on the team and since 2015, Virtus.pro is a part of the ESforce esports holding. In 2015, Virtus.Pro won ESEA and CEVO in April and July. Total earning prize money of the team is $13,642,183.37 and the team has played 468 tournaments

7.   Vici Gaming

Fangdidi was the founder of Vici Gaming which established this Esports organization on 21 September 2012. It is a Shanghai based organization that has a number of competitive series of the games like:  Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, WarCraft III, FIFA, Hearthstone and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, etc. 

Vici Gaming signed an agreement with American Basketball in September 2016 to create a celebrity brand in Esports. Major earnings done by the team is $12,185,473.01 by playing 266 tournaments. 

Top Games: Dota 2 – $5,700,876, Dota 2 (VGJ.Storm) – $1,015,432.57, Dota 2 (VGJ.Thunder) – $851,202 and Top Players and Their Earnings: Lu, Chao (Fenrir) – $1,176,283, Xu, Linsen (fy) – $1,034,239, Xie, Junhao (Super) – $894,309. 

8. Team Secret

Team Secret was established in 2014 which is a global Esports and has gained reputation in Dota 2. During  Dota 2 Asia Championships, Team Secret got 3rd rank in 2015. 2019 was the best year for Team Secret, in 2019, the team won major leagues and tournaments. 

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Major prize money earned by Team secret is $10,938,648.13 and the team has played 194 tournaments. In 2019. Team Secret won their respective PMCO Malaysia Finals before going to Shanghai for the PMCO SEA League after recruiting a Malaysian Team Genexsus. 

9. LGD Gaming

LGD Gaming is one of the oldest Esports organizations that was founded in 2009. Team has players competing in League of Legends, Overwatch, Dota 2, Honor of Kings, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. 

Shanghai based organization is a multi-gaming team sponsored by Guizhou Laogandie Food. 

Team has played 131 tournaments and won prize money of $10,752,003.42. Top Players and Their Earnings: Lei, Zengrong (MMY!) – $751,563, Yao, Zhengzheng (Yao) – $1,176,225, Liang, Fa Ming (DDC) – $839,884

10. Wings Gaming

Wings Gaming has played 27 tournaments and earned $9,745,472.22 prize money. Wings Gaming was the first organization that was nominated in the best non-olympic athlete category in 2016. At The Game Awards 2016, Wings was also nominated as team of the year. 

To prove themselves one of China’s premier teams, In  2015-2016, The team performed very creditably in a range of tournaments They won $9.1 million by winning International 2016 (TI16). Top Players and Their Earnings: Li Peng (iceice) – $1,942,462, Zhang Ruida (Faith_bian) – $1,942,562, Zhou Yang (bLink) – $1,942,462, etc. 

Final Thought:

One of the leading tournaments in esports is the International Dota 2 Championships. In 2017 and 2018, Dota Internationals ranked 13 and 14 out of 52 sports. A total prize of $25,532,200, offered by The International 2018 Dota 2 Championship. Each player on the winning team earned around $2,247,000 of the $11,234,000 (5 players per team). All the above data and figures shows the popularity of ESports. 

Most of the Esports Organization has earned money in billion Dollars and investors also invest a large amount of money on Esports. Variety of Sports and leagues are played by teams and by winning the game they get the chance to win a big prize money. If you are looking to start your business in the Esports industry then Mobiweb offers top-notch Esports Tournament App Development services across the globe. 

Author Bio:

I am Arnika Gupta SEO executive at Mobiweb Technologies which is an offshore software and application development company serving the clients globally from 10+ years. Curiosity to learn new things makes me interested in content writing and encourages me to write something different.