Esports prize money leaderboard 2023: Highest player and team winnings

Declan Mclaughlin

As 2023 reaches its halfway point, many esports circuits are ramping toward their world championships. Here are all players who have earned the most prize money in esports so far this year.

We are about halfway through 2023 and some esports titles have already completed major tournaments and international LANs. The competitive calendar in some titles will start to heat up soon as world championships and other tier-one events will take place in the back half of the year.

Rainbow Six: Siege has already crowned its world champions in 2023, while CS:GO has just finished its sole Major of the year. But in other titles, like Apex Legends, Valorant and League of Legends, things will heat up in the coming months.

With about half the year behind us, let’s look at the top earners across all esports in terms of prize money so far in 2023.

Top esports players of 2023 by prize money

This list only includes a breakdown of total prize money earned by players based on placement in tournament play and the expected cut from their winnings. Most pros will give a portion of their tournament prize winnings to the organization they play for.

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FaZe won the Intel Grand Slam in March after securing the ESL Pro League trophy

The list is dominated so far by FaZe’s CS:GO players, who pocketed $1 million in March after winning the Intel Grand Slam, the prize awarded to the team that wins four large-scale events during a window of ten such tournaments. G2 Esports’ Rainbow Six squad, the winners of the recent Six Invitational event in Montreal, make up the rest of the top 10.

StarCraft 2 star Li ‘Oliveira’ Peinan is the highest-ranked non-FPS player on the list, which also includes Gaimin Gladiators’ entire Dota 2 squad, the winner of two Major titles in 2023.

Player Esport Prize Money in 2023
Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen CS:GO $260,300
Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken CS:GO $260,300
Robin ‘ropz’ Kool CS:GO $260,300
Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants CS:GO $260,300
Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard CS:GO $254,800
Jake ‘Virtue’ Grannan Rainbow Six $212,000
Karl ‘Alem4o’ Zarth Rainbow Six $212,000
Jack ‘Doki’ Robertson Rainbow Six $212,000
Byron ‘Blurr’ Murray Rainbow Six $212,000
Benjamin ‘Benjamaster’ Dereli Rainbow Six $212,000
Zhang ‘天宇’ Tianyu PUBG Mobile $197,814
Tai ‘TaySon’ Starčič Fortnite $166,280
Andrej ‘merstachhh’ Piratov Fortnite $166,280
Aleksa ‘Queasy’ Cvetkovic Fortnite $165,180
Li ‘Oliveira’ Peinan StarCraft II  $159,138
Harry ‘Veno’ Pearson Fortnite  $155,850
Yan ‘海’ Haiyang PUBG Mobile $154,391
Marcus ‘Ace’ Hoelgaard Dota 2  $153,000
Quinn ‘Quinn’ Callahan Dota 2  $153,000
Melchior ‘Seleri’ Hillenkamp Dota 2 $153,000
Anton ‘dyrachYO’ Shkredov Dota 2 $153,000
Erik ‘tOfu’ Engel Dota 2 $153,000

Top esports teams of 2023 by prize money

FaZe Clan and G2 Esports are the only two organizations that have crossed the $1 million threshold in tournament winnings since the start of the year. The North American organization owes much of that to its CS:GO team, who completed the $1 million Intel Grand Slam after winning ESL Pro League 17.

Vitality moved up to fifth in the ranking after the CS:GO team’s success in Paris

Tianba, the Chinese organization founded by Chinese actor Chen He, is ranked third thanks to its PUBG Mobile team, which won Peacekeeper Elite League Spring 2023. French organization Vitality soared to fifth on the leaderboard after its CS:GO team’s victory at the BLAST Paris Major.

Team Prize Money in 2023
FaZe Clan $1,716,727
G2 Esports $1,678,064
Tianba $969,644
Team Liquid $930,773
Vitality $799,548
Gaimin Gladiators $786,000
w7m esports $694,840
Cloud9 $599,625
Team Weibo $543,570
Four Angry Men $469,239

This list will be updated as more esports tournaments conclude and prize money is handed out.

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