Top 10 Best Esports Players in the World 2025

T1's Faker (Lee Sang-hyeok) is the only player to win four League of Legends World Championships (2013, 2015, 2016, 2023) and five MSI titles. With career prize earnings surpassing $1.3 million and a salary estimated at $5-8 million annually, he is the highest-paid esports player in history. His 2023 Worlds victory at age 27 — thirteen years into his career — was widely called the greatest individual performance in competitive gaming. South Korea named him a national hero; he carries a torch at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

OG's N0tail (Johan Sundstein) is a two-time Dota 2 International champion (TI8 2018, TI9 2019) and held the title of highest all-time prize money earner in esports with $7.18 million in career winnings — a record that stood for years. He co-founded OG esports org from scratch and built a dynasty that revolutionized team culture in Dota 2. In retirement from active play, he transitioned to team ownership and content creation, becoming one of the most respected figures in the esports industry.

Team Vitality's ZywOo (Mathieu Herbaut) is the only player besides s1mple to claim the HLTV #1 world ranking three times (2019, 2020, 2022). A three-time Major finalist with career earnings over $800,000, he maintains a HLTV rating consistently above 1.25 across 400+ matches in top-20 competition — a statistical consistency that analysts compare to s1mple's prime. In 2025, his CS2 performances for Vitality made him the consensus best active player in the world following s1mple's reduced schedule.

Former Cloud9 CS:GO pro Shroud (Michael Grzesiek) earned $450,000+ in prize money before retiring from pro play in 2018, then built one of the largest streaming careers in history — peaking at 10 million Twitch followers and signing a landmark $10 million exclusivity deal with Mixer before returning to Twitch. Known for an inhuman mouse accuracy that makes clips of him playing Apex Legends, Valorant, and CS2 go viral to this day. In 2025 he remains among the top 10 most-watched gaming streamers globally.

Bugha (Kyle Giersdorf) won the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Solo at just 16 years old, earning $3 million in a single weekend and becoming the richest teenage esports champion in history. With over $5 million in career prize earnings, he signed with Sentinels and remained competitive through Fortnite's Chapter 5 and Zero Build ranked seasons. His 2025 return to the revived Fortnite World Cup in Madison Square Garden cemented his status as the face of competitive battle royale across generations of players.

Danish mid-laner Bjergsen (Soren Bjerg) won six NA LCS Championship titles with Team SoloMid — the most in North American LoL history — and earned over $700,000 in prize money during his decade-long career. He came out of a brief 2021 retirement to join Cloud9, then returned to TSM as head coach in 2023, winning Coach of the Year. In 2025 he remains the most recognised figure in NA esports history and the only player voted to the All-Star Game by fans in ten consecutive years.

Korean StarCraft II pro Maru (Cho Seong-ju) has won seven GSL titles — the most of any player in the tournament's history — and earned over $1.1 million in career prize money. Competing under Team NV, he is renowned for his bio-mechanical Terran micro that makes executing split-second multi-unit manoeuvres look effortless. In 2025 he remains the active #1 Korean Terran and is widely considered the greatest SC2 player of the modern era, having won the WCS Global Finals, IEM Katowice, and multiple GSL Super Tournaments.

Sentinels' TenZ (Tyson Ngo) was the first player to achieve Radiant rank in Valorant — hitting it within days of the game's beta launch — and won the VCT Masters Reykjavik 2021 championship with Sentinels in the most dominant tournament performance in Valorant history (going 10-0 in maps). With over $500,000 in career earnings and the most-watched Valorant stream clip in history, he is the defining face of competitive Valorant. In 2025 he continued competing in VCT Americas for Sentinels while mentoring the next generation of NA Valorant talent.

Finnish StarCraft II pro Serral (Joona Sotala) made history in 2018 as the first non-Korean player to win the WCS Global Finals — sweeping through arguably the strongest field in SC2 history and ending Korean players' near-total dominance of the game since its 2010 launch. With over $1 million in career prize earnings and multiple IEM Katowice and ESL Pro Tour titles, he continued winning major international events into 2025. His macro-focused Zerg play at inhuman APM makes watching his games a masterclass in strategic SC2 execution.

T1's Faker (Lee Sang-hyeok) is the only player to win four League of Legends World Championships (2013, 2015, 2016, 2023) and five MSI titles. With career prize earnings surpassing $1.3 million and a salary estimated at $5-8 million annually, he is the highest-paid esports player in history. His 2023 Worlds victory at age 27 — thirteen years into his career — was widely called the greatest individual performance in competitive gaming. South Korea named him a national hero; he carries a torch at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

OG's N0tail (Johan Sundstein) is a two-time Dota 2 International champion (TI8 2018, TI9 2019) and held the title of highest all-time prize money earner in esports with $7.18 million in career winnings — a record that stood for years. He co-founded OG esports org from scratch and built a dynasty that revolutionized team culture in Dota 2. In retirement from active play, he transitioned to team ownership and content creation, becoming one of the most respected figures in the esports industry.

Team Vitality's ZywOo (Mathieu Herbaut) is the only player besides s1mple to claim the HLTV #1 world ranking three times (2019, 2020, 2022). A three-time Major finalist with career earnings over $800,000, he maintains a HLTV rating consistently above 1.25 across 400+ matches in top-20 competition — a statistical consistency that analysts compare to s1mple's prime. In 2025, his CS2 performances for Vitality made him the consensus best active player in the world following s1mple's reduced schedule.

Former Cloud9 CS:GO pro Shroud (Michael Grzesiek) earned $450,000+ in prize money before retiring from pro play in 2018, then built one of the largest streaming careers in history — peaking at 10 million Twitch followers and signing a landmark $10 million exclusivity deal with Mixer before returning to Twitch. Known for an inhuman mouse accuracy that makes clips of him playing Apex Legends, Valorant, and CS2 go viral to this day. In 2025 he remains among the top 10 most-watched gaming streamers globally.

Bugha (Kyle Giersdorf) won the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Solo at just 16 years old, earning $3 million in a single weekend and becoming the richest teenage esports champion in history. With over $5 million in career prize earnings, he signed with Sentinels and remained competitive through Fortnite's Chapter 5 and Zero Build ranked seasons. His 2025 return to the revived Fortnite World Cup in Madison Square Garden cemented his status as the face of competitive battle royale across generations of players.

Danish mid-laner Bjergsen (Soren Bjerg) won six NA LCS Championship titles with Team SoloMid — the most in North American LoL history — and earned over $700,000 in prize money during his decade-long career. He came out of a brief 2021 retirement to join Cloud9, then returned to TSM as head coach in 2023, winning Coach of the Year. In 2025 he remains the most recognised figure in NA esports history and the only player voted to the All-Star Game by fans in ten consecutive years.

Korean StarCraft II pro Maru (Cho Seong-ju) has won seven GSL titles — the most of any player in the tournament's history — and earned over $1.1 million in career prize money. Competing under Team NV, he is renowned for his bio-mechanical Terran micro that makes executing split-second multi-unit manoeuvres look effortless. In 2025 he remains the active #1 Korean Terran and is widely considered the greatest SC2 player of the modern era, having won the WCS Global Finals, IEM Katowice, and multiple GSL Super Tournaments.

Sentinels' TenZ (Tyson Ngo) was the first player to achieve Radiant rank in Valorant — hitting it within days of the game's beta launch — and won the VCT Masters Reykjavik 2021 championship with Sentinels in the most dominant tournament performance in Valorant history (going 10-0 in maps). With over $500,000 in career earnings and the most-watched Valorant stream clip in history, he is the defining face of competitive Valorant. In 2025 he continued competing in VCT Americas for Sentinels while mentoring the next generation of NA Valorant talent.

Finnish StarCraft II pro Serral (Joona Sotala) made history in 2018 as the first non-Korean player to win the WCS Global Finals — sweeping through arguably the strongest field in SC2 history and ending Korean players' near-total dominance of the game since its 2010 launch. With over $1 million in career prize earnings and multiple IEM Katowice and ESL Pro Tour titles, he continued winning major international events into 2025. His macro-focused Zerg play at inhuman APM makes watching his games a masterclass in strategic SC2 execution.