Getting paid for playing video games is a lucrative career option, even for Canadians, it seems.
Professional gamers ‘make bank’ through competitions and tournaments, and Canada is the eighth highest-earning country when it comes to the growing esports industry, as per the latest report from Gambling.com.
The United States came in first, where players have earned a whopping $138 million CAD in total. China is in second with $135 million, and South Korea takes the third spot with $101 million in total earnings from esports.
While Canada didn’t make it to the top five, being in the eighth spot is no small feat.
Artour ‘ARTEEZY’ Babaev, a Canadian professional Dota 2 player for team Evil Geniuses, has won over $2.7 million in prize money and is Canada’s highest-earning esports player.
He takes the ninth spot in the top 10 highest-paid esports players globally, just $250,000 short of being in the eighth place.
While Dota 2 is a big earner for Canadian esports players, professionals in Canada also make bank through other games like Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Rocket League, and more.
(The values mentioned are in USD)
William ‘Zayt’ Aubin, a professional Fortnite player for NRG Esports, has won more than $1.38 million in the four years since the game launched. The French-Canadian came 36th in the Fortnite World Cup’s solo format, bagging an impressive $62,737, but the majority of his earning came from the duo format. Zayt and his teammate Saf came in the fourth position, earning $941,062 each.
Montreal has been Canada’s esports capital for a while now, but Toronto is not far behind. Construction of a 700-seater esports arena is underway, and the $500 million project is sure to dethrone Montreal.
Esports is already a billion-dollar industry and is projected to grow over 10 percent in the next two years. With the esports venue underway and an abundance of gamers in Canada, we can expect our country to move up the leaderboard in the coming years.
Gambling.com says it uses figures gathered by the online resource and database ‘Esports Earnings.’
Image Credit: LiquiPedia, eSportsPedia
Source: Gambling.com, Statista, Esports Earnings
