Sports is defined by Google as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” As children, did you ever imagine that video games could become a sport? Did you dream about🐼 that? Well, wake up because that dream is a reality.

eSports is the vision many of us had in our you𒉰th. Games like League of Legends, Dota 2, and StarCraft II all have their professional leagues. Prizes are morꦿe valuable than McDonald's toys, athe highest pa♌id Dota 2 player has collected a total of $2,720,623.84 from 60 tournaments. That would eꦬquate to over $45,000 per match, almost the same as the US Average income.

The most popular eSport game is Dota 2, h🐽olds a plethora of yearly♌ games. One of the tournaments, The International, is hosted by the game’s developer, Valve. Beginning in 2011, The International draws the world’s top Dota 2 players in a tournament against 𝓰one another with a large prize pool. The International 2016 had a prize poo🌞l equating to $20 million.

eSports, like Football or Basketball, has its star players. Users like SumaiL, Fear♛, and UNiVeRSE, have each ac🤡cumulated over $2 million each and compete in The International yearly.

We've decided to show you the🃏 Top 15 Richest eSports Ga🉐mers in the World. Through their total collected earnings, each of these players has earned over $1 million and most of them continue to play.

All figures are taken from

15 ꦐ Johan “N0tail” Sundstein ($1,057,144♛,16)

Johan “N0tail” Sundstein is a Danish Dota 2 player with talent—not a surprise since he shares a name 𓂃with Bach. N0tail was a player who started young and he is currently play𝔉ing Dota 2 on OG, a European sports Dota 2 team.

N0tail started his gaming journey on Defense of the Ancients (DotA), the first installment of Dota. He then switched to Heroes of Newerth, a game similar in style to Dota 2, at age 15. N0tail, along with notable players Fly and NoVa, formed an unsponsored team.

After plenty of success with his teammates, N0tail eventually switched to Dota 2. While playing Dota 2, he saw massive success, winning 1st place in multiple events. N0tail is one of the first to win three events sponsored by Valve, the company who created big titles like Dota 2, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, and the gaming platform Steam.

14 Dary👍l Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang ($1,091,90ꦡ0.76)

Daryl Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang (try saying that three times fast) is a Singaporean Dota player who’s had exp🦄erience with multiple games. Iceiceice got his career started as a famous DotA player, as he's won numerous awards for DotA and eventually moved on to other games.

In 2010, iceiceice shifted from DotA to StarCraft II. Iceiceice played competitively in StarCraft II since the game st🍸arted in 2011 and placed second in the Blizzard SEA Invitational—a huge StarCraft II invite only tournament. After success in StarCraft II, iceiceice eventually moved into Dota 2.

Once he shifted gears, iceiceice saw much mor🧜e success in Dota 2 and scooped in massive earnings. He’s placed first in a handful of tournaments and is currently competing with Team♚ 🌠Faceless.

13 Aliw🌞i “w33” Omar ($1,160,778.58) 𒉰

Aliwi “w33” Omar is a Syrian Dota 2 player. Omar, along with Dota star MiSeRy, plays on the team Digital Chaos. Digital Chaos is a North American team who’s🙈 housed some of the best Dota players, including Aui_2000, w33, and ൩MiSeRy, all who have earned over $1 million playing Dota.

W33 is ꦆfluent multiple languages including English, Arabic, and Romanian. Like several of the others on the li🐼st, w33 began his career playing DotA. W33’s gaming history dates back to 2004, when he was on🙈ly nine years old 𒅌and, in 2011, he began playing Dota 2.

For a time, before his professional gaming career, w33 studied chemical engineering. W33 then grew 🦩to be a popular pub star and eventually became Dota 2 famous.

12 Gustav “S4” Magnuౠsson ($1,165,145.88)

Gustav “S4” Magnusson is a Swedish Dota 🦄player who is famous for play𒁏ing the heroes Magnus and Puck—two Dota characters used for offensive 🌌playing. He’s currently an a𒅌ctive player and plays on OG with the previously mentionned N0tail.

S4 got his start like a chunk of Dota players: on Heroes of Newerth, which plays in a similar fashion to Dota 2. After some initial success in professional Heroes of Newerth, S4 wanted to try his luck at Dota 2 due to its rising popularity.

After a short period of learning, S4 was able to see immediate success. At the end of 2012, he ꦏwas competing in No Tidehunter—a Swedish professional team. Eventually, he went on to win The International 2013, winning a total of $1,437,190 with Alliance, his team at the time.

11 Ludwig “Zai” Wahlberg ($1,184,448.04) 🐲

Ludwig “Zai” Wahlberg, no relඣatio⭕n to Mark, is a Swedish Dota player who’s made a name💮 for hi𒅌mself at a young age. Zai started playing Dota at age 14 and, eve🍸n though he’s only 19 now, he’s still one of the richest eSports gamers in tꦅhe world.

Zai got his start on Heroes of Newerth. At age 14, Zai won DreamHoN, a tournඣament in the Heroes of Newerth community. After playing Heroes of Newerth, Zai shifted his attention to Dota 2 in 2013.

Zai went through various team changes until 2014, where he joined the group S A D B O Y S ,with other eSports stars like ppd, Fear, and UNiVeRsE. The team had a stunning 16-2 record which attracted the attention of Evil Genesis, a North American gaming organization. From there, S A D B O Y S was picked up by Evil Genesis and Zai re𓃲mains on the roster.

10 Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen ($1,335,957.12) 🦂

Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen is a Danish Dota 2 Player who plays for USA’s Digital Chaos Dota team. MiSeRy has a track record going back to 2008 with his hi♒ghest earning 🍬year being 2016 ($982,876.80).

MiSeRy is known for 🐬being an extremely versatile player and has been on numerous, well-known teams like Meet Your Makers, a German multi-gaming organization with a history dating back to 2000, where he played a significant role. He was also a member of Evil Geniuses—one of the oldest eSports organizat𝐆ions in the US dating back to 1999.

Now,ꦯ MiSeRy is part of Digital Chaos, a US team wi༒th a total of $3,933,669 in earnings.

9 🐟 Clement “Puppey” Ivanov ($1,348,176.36)

Clement “Puppey” Ivanov is a Dota 2 player who🅘 currently serves as the team captain for Team Secret, a Eur🧜opean Dota 2 professional team. Puppey’🅺s Dota playing dates back to 2007, with his highest earning year being 2015 ($446,222.82).

Puppey is a pretty popular player and this stems from his ability to make bold decisions, even in the middle of a game. He is skillful in all roles of Dota 2, but prefers to play in support.

Puppeyಞ is also heavily involved in musical endeavors, as he can play violin, clarinet, guitar and saxophone. Puppey sung in a choir for more than a decade and hopes to start a group of his own eventually.

8 🐲 Zhang “Mu” Pan ($1,390,711.90) 🔜

Zhang “Mu” Pan is a retired Chinese Dota 2 player who played for the teams TongFu, an eSports organization spinoff of TongF🦂u Porridge and Newbee, a Chinese team 🐷that started in 2014. Mu started playing Dota recently in 2012 and took home $1,098,069.21 in 2014, his highest earning year to date.

Mu is a well-known player who takes risks that are a little more calculated than Puppey’s. Mu is a high risk, high reward player, which is likely the caওuse of his huge earnings in 2014.

Eventually, Mu’s luck started tanking; begin﷽ning in 2015, Mu started finishing in last place in tournaments. More losses led to Mu eventually announcing his retirement in August🧸 of 2016. Mu then joined Old Boys, a casting group, which means he might stay in the gaming world.

7 ꧂ Zhihao “Hao” Chen ($1,759,847.03)

Zhihao “Hao” Chen is a Dota 2 Plaও🗹yer who is currently not actively playing. Hao may be inactive, but has displayed some butt-kicking skills on Dota 2, which banked him $1,759,847! He earned more t🌞han Mu, Puppey, and MiSeRy, which makes Hao an incredibly huge deal.

When Hao was competing again﷽st the team RoX.KIS in 2010, he advised them to “pick Spectre [a te🎃am] for me, I will cut off my hand if we don’t win,” The quote earned him the nickname “Hao the Hand Cutter,” by various Dota 2 players.

Hao was known to be fervent in competitions. The impassioned player s꧃howed a🌠ggression and urges to kill - in Dota 2 only; he’s not a psycho! Hao played risky and🎃 didn’t mind going for the kill every chan🌌ce he got, which made him a lot of money in the process.

6 Zhang “xiao8” Ning ($1,824,534.🐼95)

Zhang “Xiao8” started hitting the Dota servers in September of 🏅2010. Hao started relatively recently, but has driven his way ahead of others who’ve been at it for years. By ⛄2017, xiao8 has raked in a whopping $1,824,534 and he’s not even the highest on this list.

Xiao8 has bounced around various teams, like most players. Xiao8 failed to perform in his first few tournaments in 2011 and Xaio8’s team at the time, Inv🧸ictus Gaming, failed to show up at The International 2011.

Off the computer screen, Xiao8 married Chinese model Jie Zha🌠o. Xiao8 appeared on a dating show to meet her and absolutely bombed on the first date with Jie Zhao. Xiao8 successfully escaped the friend zone and scored a date later 🐬when he re-appeared in an episode.

Xiao8 is now playing on the Newbee Bos𝔍s team, a squad meant for more leisurely and less competitive Dota 2 gameplay, where he continues to make cash.