Esports Earnings has released its annual list of top 50 esports prize earners, and 2020 looks significantly different than iterations from previous years. The highest earner? Professional Chess mastermind Magnus Carlsen.
The 30-year-old Norwegian took home $511,000 in prize money on Chess24 last year, higher than any other pro gamer from the likes of Dota 2, CS:GO or League of Legends. He was one of four Chess24 players to appear in the top 50 highest earners list, which can be seen in full below (data provided by EsportsEarnings.com):
Chess hardly qualifies as an esports competition, but it has become quite popular on streaming platform Twitch over the past few years, and the global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many chess competitions to pivot online alongside a majority of esports events.
Another reason why games like chess and Call of Duty were able to dominate the table was the amount of Tier S competitions in other esports getting canceled. Dota 2's The International — which has always been the highest prize pool event in esports with prize pools in the eight figures — never happened, and neither did any of the CS:GO million-dollar Majors. On TI merit alone, the top X of earners traditionally belonged to Dota 2, as TI champions would get $4M or more off one event alone. In 2020, however, not a single Dota 2 player is present.
Simultaneously, the establishment of Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty League has resulted in many CoD pros claiming top spots on the list.
H/T Unikrn
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