Top Earning Video Gamers Of 2021

Famous video gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins becomes the richest gamer in the world with a massive income of $17 million last year. He was on the list of top-earning video gamers for quite a while. He is also sitting high on the popular gamer list quicker than most. The world of competitive video gaming and esports offers a lot of opportunity and fame. But at the same time, it offers money and huge amounts of it too.

The sheer presence of the gaming industry is feeding thousands of souls associated with it. Among everyone else, it is the gamers who are reaping the most out of it. One can never deny the amount of hard work and effort they put behind every match they play. But it is the end prize of those efforts that is taking everyone by surprise. The gaming profession has started to yield more money than other recognizable sports around the globe.

How Esports Players and Video Gamers are Earning a Huge Money

Players like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek are making money left and right playing the game they love. The revolution of the gaming world is one of the best things to happen in the new decade. There is a countless number of players who are aspiring to go pro and become as famous as their icons. Unlike a few years back while gaming was still a time pass in many places, people are taking it seriously and actually working on their game.

For a gamer, there are many sources of earning apart from winning the tournaments. Of course, these tournaments offer hard money but one can sneak more than the cash prize if luck persists. Players like Ninja and Shroud are not only famous gamers but also fan popular video game streamers.

Even after missing out on the qualification for the Fortnite World Championship, he has easily made more money than others. Fortnite champion Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf had won that $3 million championship prize. Still, it cannot put him on a level with Ninja. The very ground of sponsorship money and endorsements leading to more cash is enough to place Ninja on top of the ranking charts. 

Platforms like Twitch, Mixer are competing among each other to get the players on their side offering more cash to lure them in. It is estimated that the top ten highest earners have combined a total of 270 followers across Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube. This has led to a gross collection of $121 million last year. 

5 Top Earning Gamers

The list of highest-earning gamers is constituted with gaming data from last year and revenue earned by them respectively. These players might have played more than one game professionally or may stream more than one video game on their streaming channel. The list is based on their income and not the skill or quality of their gameplay. 

1. Tyler “Ninja” Blevins

Ninja whose real name is Richard Tyler Blevins is an American professional gamer, Youtuber and Streamer. He is a massively popular figure appearing in several brand commercials and endorsements. Tyler has around 2.8 million followers on Mixer. Before coming to Mixer, Tyler was the highest followed streamer in Twitch having more than 16 million followers across the world. In addition to this, the 28-year-old pro has 22.7 million YouTube subscribers and 14.9 million Instagram followers. Last year he made around $17 million through various gaming and endorsements deals. A large chunk of money is credited via his online paid streams among which Twitch fans alone paid $4.99 premium fees each. 

Tyler is famous for his Fortnite gameplay and can be found in several endorsements and brand faces. Thanks to a deal with Red Bull Esports, he can be seen adorning the drinks can everywhere too. Tyler started his professional gaming career in 2009 with Halo 3. Later he moved to stream and becoming a professional streamer by 2011. He first started playing H1Z1, and then moved to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). He gained massive popularity while streaming his PUBG gameplay when the game itself was nearing its peak. Ninja has also participated in various charitable streaming events and generated large money from them. 

2. Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg

Felix Kjellberg who is popularly known among his fans as PewDiePie is the most followed individual on YouTube. He’s funny, witty, and long evasive narrations on gaming streams have earned him quite the crowd. He is arguably one the most popular streamers around.

PieDiePie is widely regarded as a game comic, who brings in the element of laughter in his streams. The Swedish professional streamer started his YouTube channel in December 2010. Within 2012 only, he gained over 1 million subscribers and continued to rise in popularity among the fans. Not content with just gaming, he ventured into other diverse categories of streaming that included Vlogs, music videos, and other shorts. 

PewDiePie was also named in “The World’s 100 Most Influential People” by Times Magazine. At the start of his streaming career, PewDiePie focused more on video game commentaries. The funny and interesting way of addressing the video has earned him millions of subscribers overnight. Every action he does, his followers repeat the same ardently over YouTube. He endorsed several brands and studios in collaboration to make funny videos about games and other things. As famous as he is, he is certainly not free of controversies. He has more than $15 million in earnings. 

3. Preston “Preston” Arsement

Preston is a popular figure among Minecraft players and followers. He himself is a professional Minecraft player and also is famous for streaming the gameplay across several channels. His main source of annual income comes from hosting custom versions of Minecraft. This custom version has an in-game spending opportunity for his fans who love to support their idol. He has four YouTube channels for specific gameplay categories. Preston is mostly famous for his online game hosting and Minecraft streams from PrestonPlayz. Arsement joined YouTube with his channel TBNRfrags in 2010. He has also reportedly hired 24 people to help him run the YouTube business of content creation that he has managed over the years. He has raised over $14 million through earnings. 

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4. Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach

Mark is an American YouTuber originally from Honolulu, Hawaii. He also shared his interest in hosting podcasts and founded a clothing brand by the name of Cloak along with a fellow Youtuber. Mark is most popular among his fans for his over-the-top reactions and suppressed humor lines that will surely tickle the laughter in most serious fellows.

Markiplier gained a massive online following courtesy of the horror game commentaries and streams. His reactions to games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent was particularly cheered and followed. He also released a YouTube original film last year which followed the category of choosing your own adventure. The film was titled “A Heist with Markiplier.” Fischbach also collaborated with many fellow YouTube stars and donated significant portions of his stream generated revenues to charity. His Last years’ earnings stand as $14 million

5. Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek

Shroud is a popular figure among many YouTube and video game enthusiasts who previously used the name mEclipse. The Canadian streamer has a substantial YouTube subscriber base and following across multiple streaming platforms. He was a former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. But the best thing about Shroud is that he never content himself on playing a single game. The main reason for his increasing follower base was his versatility in terms of gameplays. He mastered many other games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, Valorant, Escape from Tarkov, and other First Person Shooter games. His skills with FPS games have earned him the title of “the best aimer” in the industry. 

Shroud carries a vast fan following across multiple streaming channels including Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube. He has the third-highest following in Twitch having over 9 million followers. Following the footsteps of others, he also joined Mixer thanks to their lucrative offers and endorsement deals from the Microsoft streaming platform. In his competitive gaming days, he was a popular figure with compLexity Gaming. He helped his team acquire first place in ESL Pro League Season 4 in 2016 with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. He left pro gaming scenes on April 18, 2018, and became a full-time game streamer. In 2019 he won the Content Creator of the Year award in The Game Awards. 

Conclusion

There are many other gamers and popular figures who are earning big in the world of video gaming. Pro gaming is definitely one of the major avenues of money-making with high lucrative prize money on offer. But in addition to that video gamers and popular figures are raising cash left and right with their fan following and leveraging on endorsements and brand imaging via popular gaming channels and streams. With passing years, the follower count is sure to go up. The streamers are looking to deliver more happy content to their subscribers as new streaming channels and media are coming to the forefront with more lucrative offers for the gamers.