As 2023 reaches its halfway point, many esports circuits are ramping toward their world championships. Here are all players who have earned the most prize money in esports so far this year.
We are about halfway through 2023 and some esports titles have already completed major tournaments and international LANs. The competitive calendar in some titles will start to heat up soon as world championships and other tier-one events will take place in the back half of the year.
Rainbow Six: Siege has already crowned its world champions in 2023, while CS:GO has just finished its sole Major of the year. But in other titles, like Apex Legends, Valorant and League of Legends, things will heat up in the coming months.
With about half the year behind us, let’s look at the top earners across all esports in terms of prize money so far in 2023.
Top esports players of 2023 by prize money
This list only includes a breakdown of total prize money earned by players based on placement in tournament play and the expected cut from their winnings. Most pros will give a portion of their tournament prize winnings to the organization they play for.
The list is dominated so far by FaZe’s CS:GO players, who pocketed $1 million in March after winning the Intel Grand Slam, the prize awarded to the team that wins four large-scale events during a window of ten such tournaments. G2 Esports’ Rainbow Six squad, the winners of the recent Six Invitational event in Montreal, make up the rest of the top 10.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
StarCraft 2 star Li ‘Oliveira’ Peinan is the highest-ranked non-FPS player on the list, which also includes Gaimin Gladiators’ entire Dota 2 squad, the winner of two Major titles in 2023.
| Player | Esport | Prize Money in 2023 |
| Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen | CS:GO | $260,300 |
| Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken | CS:GO | $260,300 |
| Robin ‘ropz’ Kool | CS:GO | $260,300 |
| Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants | CS:GO | $260,300 |
| Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard | CS:GO | $254,800 |
| Jake ‘Virtue’ Grannan | Rainbow Six | $212,000 |
| Karl ‘Alem4o’ Zarth | Rainbow Six | $212,000 |
| Jack ‘Doki’ Robertson | Rainbow Six | $212,000 |
| Byron ‘Blurr’ Murray | Rainbow Six | $212,000 |
| Benjamin ‘Benjamaster’ Dereli | Rainbow Six | $212,000 |
| Zhang ‘天宇’ Tianyu | PUBG Mobile | $197,814 |
| Tai ‘TaySon’ Starčič | Fortnite | $166,280 |
| Andrej ‘merstachhh’ Piratov | Fortnite | $166,280 |
| Aleksa ‘Queasy’ Cvetkovic | Fortnite | $165,180 |
| Li ‘Oliveira’ Peinan | StarCraft II | $159,138 |
| Harry ‘Veno’ Pearson | Fortnite | $155,850 |
| Yan ‘海’ Haiyang | PUBG Mobile | $154,391 |
| Marcus ‘Ace’ Hoelgaard | Dota 2 | $153,000 |
| Quinn ‘Quinn’ Callahan | Dota 2 | $153,000 |
| Melchior ‘Seleri’ Hillenkamp | Dota 2 | $153,000 |
| Anton ‘dyrachYO’ Shkredov | Dota 2 | $153,000 |
| Erik ‘tOfu’ Engel | Dota 2 | $153,000 |
Top esports teams of 2023 by prize money
FaZe Clan and G2 Esports are the only two organizations that have crossed the $1 million threshold in tournament winnings since the start of the year. The North American organization owes much of that to its CS:GO team, who completed the $1 million Intel Grand Slam after winning ESL Pro League 17.
Tianba, the Chinese organization founded by Chinese actor Chen He, is ranked third thanks to its PUBG Mobile team, which won Peacekeeper Elite League Spring 2023. French organization Vitality soared to fifth on the leaderboard after its CS:GO team’s victory at the BLAST Paris Major.
| Team | Prize Money in 2023 |
| FaZe Clan | $1,716,727 |
| G2 Esports | $1,678,064 |
| Tianba | $969,644 |
| Team Liquid | $930,773 |
| Vitality | $799,548 |
| Gaimin Gladiators | $786,000 |
| w7m esports | $694,840 |
| Cloud9 | $599,625 |
| Team Weibo | $543,570 |
| Four Angry Men | $469,239 |
This list will be updated as more esports tournaments conclude and prize money is handed out.