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.
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.
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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