2017 was an incredible year for esport prize funds – even teams finishing outside the top two are coming away with a huge chunk…but who is the highest earning eSports team?
From a few thousand to hundreds of thousand to now a few million dollars being an industry standard for most big tournaments.
And 2017 was an insane year for prize money, with several teams earning huge amounts and making us mere mortals pondering why we didn’t put more time into becoming a Dota 2 god.
With that being said, we’re looking at three of the top earning teams in the world of eSports.
1. Team Liquid – $18,233,45
2017 was an incredible year for Team Liquid who is currently ranked second overall in the Dota2 rankings.
Not bad for a team that has only been focusing mainly on the MMO since changing focus from StarCraftII back in 2012.
They currently sit top of the list in terms of money earnt from tournaments – according to export earnings.
And incredibly, more than $12million of their $18m came from Dota tournaments last year, with them winning $10m of that thanks to their stunning 1st place at the 2017 International.
Funnily enough, without Dota, Liquid would actually be much further down the table, in fact, they wouldn’t even be in the top 10 earnings teams.
With the Dota prize money only going to increase, and Liquid looking to snap everyone and anyone up then they’ll be quids in again.
Which are the top existing eSports arenas that the world has to offer?
2. Evil Geniuses $16,636,539
Another team that sees more than 80% of their earnings come thanks to Dota – I really need to get better at that game…
Funnily enough, Evil Geniuses began as a Counter-Strike team but only 1% of their earnings.
So once again Dota is the game that you really need to be playing if you want to be earning the big bucks.
Oddly enough, 2017 was actually a terrible year for the team, with them just (JUST) raking in $1,238,865 but just remember they still have one of the best Dota players in the world in the form of 18-year-old Syed Hassan aka Suma1L.
Despite their shocking 2017, 2018 could be a big turn around for the team, especially if they can get back to their former glory on the CSGO scene.
3. Newbee $12,138,868
This Chinese team founded in 2014 and are already the third top-earning team in the world, which is an incredible feat.
In their first year, they went unbeaten in MarsTV Dota 2 League, placed in third in WPC League 2014 and then were invited to the 2014 Dota International…which they won!
Since then, they’ve been pretty unstoppable across the board, and they showed that by finishing 2nd overall in earnings in 2017, picking up more than $5m.
This is kind of making us think that elecSpo should start a team so we can start knocking our mortgage off…