Top Richest Video Game Players In The World

 Team Newbee – China

AKA: Zhang Pan (Mu), Chen Zhihao (Hao), Zhang Ning (xiao8), Wang Jiao (Banana), Wang Zhaohui (SanSheng)

Total earnings: $1,005,661 each

I understand I’ve cheated a little bit here, but these guys recently won so much money that their team would basically now comprise the entire list, and I wouldn’t want the other entrants to feel too deflated. They probably do though, as the five members of Team Newbee bagged just over a cool one million dollars each – effectively doubling the previous record – in a single tournament.

The tournament in question was Valve’s International, a Dota 2 competition that’s responsible for so many of the other dollars in this list. This time, however, history was ready to be made, with the prize pot sitting at over $5 million, the largest electronic sports prize ever offered. Someone had to win it, and so they did. Ironically named Newbees, their skill and aggression proved they were anything but – and now they’re gaming millionaires.

Lee Jae Dong – South Korea

AKA: Jaedong    Total earnings: $519,086

With nicknames including “The Tyrant” and “The Legend Killer,” Jaedong is something of a competitive videogaming heavyweight. He’s South Korean, so guess what his game of choice is? That’s right, we’re back at StarCraft again. Just in case you still don’t quite believe how popular that game is over there, bear in mind that over half of all the copies of StarCraft in existence were sold in South Korea.

In 2005, the country held a StarCraft Championship, and it attracted 120,000 spectators. To put that into perspective, imagine 40,000 more people than attended this year’s SuperBowl. What that is, is amazing.

And even with all the competition, Jaedong is the best, earning the most prize money of any professional gamer in the world currently, over his seven year career. He revolutionized the way StarCraft was played, he holds several records, and he earned half a million dollars from playing a videogame. He’s a badass, and he commands both your love and respect for that.

But in case you’re having delusions of grandeur about become a pro player yourself, it might be worth considering that these guys treat it like a full time job, training together for hours a day. Have a look at this clip – from excellent documentary The Hax Life, regarding exactly what these guys get up to – then see if you feel like you could still live the dream. Good luck.

Danil Ishutin – Ukraine

AKA: Dendi    Total earnings: $452,841

Yet another Natus Vincere player, many consider Dendi to be the greatest Dota player in the world right now. Not much is really known about Dendi, other than that he has amassed over 26 podium finishes in the last couple of years, with more than 15 of those being gold medals. Umm… yes, that’s it.

In order to fill this second paragraph, here’s a list of things he could buy with his $450,000 in earnings since he went pro in 2009:

– A luxury South African villa, with pool
– An unfeasibly small apartment in London
– Several college degrees
– A round trip to Mars with SpaceX
– A Lamborghini Aventador
– A BGM-109 Tomahawk missile
– 900 Xbox Ones. Not that he’d be caught dead playing a console.
– 450,000 hammers from the dollar store

And so on. I promise, I’m a qualified writer.

Johnathan Wendel – United States

AKA: Fatal1ty    Total earnings: $454,919

Johnathan Wendel is widely considered to be the first, and best, electronic competition player ever. Unlike many of the players today, he plays a wide variety of games as opposed to specializing in one particular title. He made his name in the often overlooked shooter Painkiller, but has also ripped people to shreds in all manner of other FPS games, like Quake, Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, Doom 3, Counter Strike,and Alien Versus Predator (lol, what?).

He estimates he’s killed somewhere in the region of 5 million people online over the years, and if that doesn’t make you a legendary cyber-athlete, nothing does. Now something of an entrepreneur aged 33, he continues to play competitively outside of designing gaming mice and headphones and such. In 2010, he was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame and even holds a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for most kills in 60 minutes.