Remember when your elders told you to put down that video game controller and work on your homework? Now, we're not encouraging anyone to ditch their education for a life of professional gaming... we're just saying you can make millions doing it. A report that was published by Casino.ca has revealed that professional gamers raked in an astounding $1.5 billion worldwide last year. According to the report, Chinese players lead the pack with $68,460,526 in overall earnings. The U.S. sits in second place, with gamers in the states raking in $63,016,482 in 2017. South Korea ($57 million), Sweden ($23 million), and Denmark ($14 million) round out the top five most lucrative countries for professional gamers.
As far as single players go, KuroKy ranks the highest in earnings. The talented gamer made $3.5 million last year, and his teammate Miracle earned just over $3 million. Both players were able to amass such astounding amounts of cash by owning gamers in the Dota 2 championships, which awarded pro-gamers over $24 million in prize money in 2017. UNiVeRsE, MinD_ContRoL, and Matumbaman earned just under $3 million, which rounds out the top five top-grossing pro-gamers in 2017. That $5,000 Drake donated to Ninja seems like play money compared to what these gamers are pulling in.
According to DoteSports, pro-gamers are on course to earn $2.3 billion dollars in total revenue in the next four years. I'm in the wrong industry.
