Highest Earning Esports Teams

• Tournament prize earnings and overall organisational value are two very different things in esports, with some of the biggest names earning far more from sponsorships and branding than from competition itself
• Dota 2 dominates the prize pool landscape, with the majority of the top ten teams generating the bulk of their tournament earnings from Valve's annual multi-million dollar event, The International
• The list features organisations ranging from a $440 million giant in Team Liquid to FaZe Clan, once valued at $1 billion before being sold for just $17 million in 2023

Esports has grown into one of the most lucrative competitive industries in the world, and with that comes some serious prize money. Today, Casino Guru takes a look at the ten highest-earning esports teams based purely on tournament appearances and cash prizes generated, not overall revenue, sponsorships, or anything else.

It is worth noting that earnings in esports are heavily tied to the games being played, since prize pools vary massively depending on the title and its level of mainstream interest. With that in mind, here are the ten teams that have made the most from competition alone.

*Estimated value: This tab was added to demonstrate that the prize earnings a team has generated can be independent from the organization’s actual value. Some valuations were not available and were omitted but we deemed the tab to be relevant and an important informational snippet to include even if it cannot be complete.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid is the organization with the most completed tournaments, and far ahead of any other organization, according to Esports Earnings, a website that aggregates data on how much esports teams have won historically.

Team Liquid has played in 2,998 events at the time of reporting and has amassed an overall prize pool worth $57,320,302, making it by far the most accomplished team based on this metric alone.

The bulk of these winnings, around 57%, come from placing high in Dota 2, a game that annually hosts a grand world event featuring a multi-million dollar prize pool funded by Valve Corporation and community purchases.

Team Liquid has done equally well in Counter-Strike, across multiple iterations of the game, earning $6,441,654, and Fortnite, where its players have secured $1,505,588. With the team's players competing across 30 different esports disciplines, Team Liquid is one of the world's most influential esports teams and the top earner on this list.

OG

OG is the second-highest-earning team in the world, based on tournament prizes alone. The organization is fairly new - launching in 2015 - and competing in a much more selective roster of disciplines.

OG’s breakaway success has been two very strong showings at The International, Dota 2’s crowning global event, resulting in total winnings for the team of $37,366,545.63, or roughly 96.21% of the total earnings.

Although OG is also represented in Rocket League, Valorant, and Counter-Strike, the prizes won from these other games have been much smaller in comparison. OG has been doing well in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and recently Counter-Strike 2, amassing a total prize purse of $1,332,502.

OG has been in a slump, tournament-wise, with the team unlikely to soon return to securing top spots in any of the disciplines it previously excelled in.

Team Spirit

Team Spirit is another well-established name in the world of competitive video gaming. Established in 2015 in Moscow, Russia, and relocating to Belgrade, Serbia in 2022, this European outfit has gone on to become the third-highest earning esports team from events.

The team competes in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Hearthstone, PUBG Mobile, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, among others.

Team Spirit has notably amassed its earnings from Dota 2, accounting for 83.29% of its total - $30,554,211, but has done equally well in other disciplines as well, in terms of securing top placements, even if the total money paid out was less.

In Hearthstone, Team Spirit has won $275,968, but the organization’s second-highest tournament earnings came from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2, where Team Spirit’s squads have won a total of $5,373,238.71.

Team Spirit also maintains a powerful feeder team, the Team Spirit Academy, once again covering Counter-Strike games, as well as an all-female team for the games.

Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses (EG) is another flagship top-earning esports team, founded all the way back in 1999, long before competitive video gaming took on the breadth it has today. Over the years, EG has been able to clinch multiple notable victories, and most prominently, Dota 2’s The International in 2015, the 2018 Call of Duty Championship, and the 2023 Valorant Championship, competing across multiple esports.

The team has played in more than 1019 tournaments throughout its long career, and won 77.65% of its tournament earnings from Dota 2, amounting to $22,183,443.62. EG has also won nearly $1,000,000 from Call of Duty tournament prizes and $1,118,865 in Counter-Strike.

EG has been less well-represented in League of Legends, where they currently have amassed $295,743 from tournament winnings, and the team actually excels at StarCraft, where it has brought in $788,130 in tournament winnings.

Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere is a Ukraine-based powerhouse and one of the longest-standing esports teams in the competitive field. Known for their prolific Counter-Strike lineage and the first team to have won The International, Na’Vi, as fans call the team, is one of the pioneers of the competitive video gaming space, long before it achieved its current level of recognition.

Another reason why Natus Vincere is an important mention here is that the team has actually won the bulk of its tournament earnings from Counter-Strike, with over $11,668,824 from the game.

Dota 2 comes in second with $5,562,811 of the total money earned by the team from tournaments. Na’Vi is also well represented across games such as PUBG and PUBG mobile, where it has won $1,934,196 and $1,042,669, respectively.

Overall, Na’Vi has won $24,883,053 across 885 tournaments and is one of the world’s best-established Counter-Strike powerhouses today.

Fnatic

Fnatic is one of the esports organizations to have participated in the most tournaments in its time, with 1194 completed competitive events. The team has fetched $22,315,557 in tournament prizes and it has similarly pursued business ventures and developing its overall brand. In 2020, the company raised $10 million to support its operations.

The UK-based esports org is one of the longest-standing competitors in the industry, having launched in 2004 and competed across some of the most cut-throat disciplines. Akin to Na'Vi, Fnatic made history by winning the first League of Legends World Championship in 2011.

Fnatic's net worth is estimated at around $100 million today, down from the $260 million Forbes reported the org was worth back in 2022. Fnatic is an interesting esports organization, as it has earned almost an equal amount of tournament prizes from Counter-Strike and Dota 2, $5,421,226 and $5,476,234, respectively, or nearly 50% of the total earnings.

The organization has fielded dozens of successful squads against various esports games, with the League of Legends teams winning$3,414,165.36 and the Valorant squad securing $1,495,007.

FaZe Clan

FaZe Clan is an esports organization with deep roots in entertainment and doing things differently. Founded in 2015, the early days of the org focused on building loyal audiences by innovating. FaZe was playing Call of Duty exclusively, despite the lower prize pools at the time, and cultivated a loyal following on YouTube, innovating the esports genre and securing early accolades for its "trickshot" innovation.

Since then, FaZe Clan has branched out into multiple esports disciplines, playing in 818 tournaments and winning $21,576,306. To the team’s credit, the bulk has come from continuously excelling at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2, with 43.87% of the total or $9,465,153 earned this way.

The team has also secured great overall results from other First Person Shooter titles, such as Rainbow Six Siege ($1,964,474), PUBG ($2,272,872), Fortnite ($2,432,776), and Halo ($1,121,800), among others.

FaZe Clan was once notably valued at $1 billion, but was eventually sold to GameSquare in 2023 for $17 million, a steep drop in its overall valuation.

Virtus.pro

Virtus.pro is a prominent esports organization and one of the very first to have championed grassroots competitive video gaming, eventually translating into an echelon for how esports should be practiced.

The organization has amassed $21,267,955 across 745 tournaments, and has notably earned a name for itself in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2, as well as Dota 2.

Virtus.pro’s Dota 2 squad has still consistently won the most money out of Dota 2, a total of $12,039,007, but the team has been present around the Counter-Strike scene for more than a decade, bringing in a total of $5,554,765 in tournament earnings.

Virtus.pro is represented across 20 games, although not all of its rosters are currently active, with the organization constantly exploring new opportunities. The team was actually founded by Irina "Runcha" Semenova, which is an often overlooked fact.

In 2015, the team received a $100 million investment from Alisher Usmanov, one of the world's richest people. The team relocated to Yerevan, Armenia since 2022, partially because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Team Secret

Team Secret is a European outfit with over $21 million in total winnings across 453 tournaments. With 11 years + under its belt, the team has been competing in multiple disciplines, with Dota 2 bringing in the bulk of the organization’s tournament winnings.

Team Secret has won $18,796,004 or 89.24% of its total earnings from the popular MOBA-style game while fielding multiple competitive squads to play in other games as well.

Team Secret has actually performed well across Rocket League, with the team claiming $472,120 in tournament winnings, and also competing across Rainbow: Six Siege for $360,032.

Notably, the team has also been fielding successful players in Age of Empires II, fetching $128,334 in prize money and Arena of Valor, a mobile-first esports game popular in Southeast Asia, where Team Secret has collected $240,000 in overall winnings.

Paris Saint-Germain Esports

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is an esports team that carries the identity of the France-based soccer powerhouse. PSG also happens to be one of the most accomplished competitive video gaming outfits. Founded in 2016, the team is still looking to push its Dota 2 legacy and branch out more convincingly into other esports.

PSG has earned the bulk of its money from Dota 2, which offers the highest prize pools across its competitive circuit, and notably The International, with the team's prize earnings from the game at $18,044,406, accounting for 91.08% of the team's total.

The team has also achieved notable success in games such as Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, and Brawl Stars, earning five and six-figure total prizes across various tournaments. Overall, PSG has played in just 181 tournaments in total.

Esports earnings: Are tournament winnings the only way?

Today’s esports powerhouses are run as businesses, and they hardly rely on tournament prize pools. Rather, there are branding rights, sponsorship deals with major commercial brands, and other revenue channels, such as various apparel products, as well as selling and loaning players.

The fortunes of the esports industry are also changing, with Forbes estimating in 2022 that at least 10 organizations have reached valuation targets of $200 million or more, only to revise its general outlook in 2024.

Interestingly, Team SoloMid was cited as reaching a valuation of $540 million in 2022, but the team’s total tournament earnings place it on 24 position among overall teams based on how much prize money they have won. This marks an important distinction between an esports org’s overall value and how much it has earned from tournament prizes.

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