Following Vitality’s victory at the ESL Pro League Season 16, Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen became the first CSGO pro player to pass the $2 million mark in earnings. This cements dupreeh as the highest-earning CSGO player, after more than ten years of active competition. While there are other professional CSGO players hot on his heels, dupreeh will always be able to say that he was the first player to pass the $2 million mark.
Following a rocky year for the organisation, the ESL Pro League win was a huge milestone for Team Vitality. In March, during Season 15 of the Pro League, Vitality crashed out of the tournament with an underwhelming performance that left the team in 14th place. It hasn’t been a great year for the organisation, but this win has lined the team’s pockets with $200k in prize money and guaranteed them a spot at the BLAST World Final and IEM Katowice 2023.
What’s more, the victory allowed dupreeh to enter the history books and become the highest-earning CSGO player in the business.
It’s Lonely At The Top
Natus Vincere won the most valuable CSGO tournament at PGL Stockholm (Image Credit: Natus Vincere)
According to statistics platform, esportsearnings.com, dupreeh sits in 36th place on the list of the highest-earning esports players of all time. It’s a lonely playing field for CSGO pro players, as out of the top fifty players, only four of them are CSGO esports competitors. While dupreeh is at the top of the CSGO table, he’s closely followed by the likes of Xyp9x, dev1ce, and gla1ve. There’s a huge ‘imbalance’ present on the list, with all but two of the top 36 earners coming from the Dota 2 scene.
Of course, most of those competitors will have won The International, arguably the most valuable esports tournament in history.
With this milestone, dupreeh also becomes the 3rd highest-earning esports player from his home country of Denmark. It has been a long road for dupreeh, whose career started way back in 2012, shortly after Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was first released. His competitive peak came in 2018 when he snatched a whopping $729,550 in earnings. Between March 2018 and March 2019, dupreeh went on an absolute spree, securing victory after victory:
- DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 ($100k)
- ESL Pro League Season 7 ($250k)
- Esports Championship Series S5 ($250k)
- ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 ($500k)
- FACEIT Major: London 2018 ($500k)
- BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 ($125k)
- IEM XIII ($100k)
- Esports Championship Series S6 ($250k)
- ESL Pro League Season 8 ($250k)
- IGS Season 1 ($1,000,000)
- BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018 ($125k)
- IEM Katowice 2019 ($500k)
- BLAST Pro Series: Sao Paulo 2019 ($125k)
It was one of the hottest streaks a CSGO player – or any esports player – has ever seen, and it cemented dupreeh as one of the best CSGO players in the world.
Which CSGO Players Have Earned The Most?
Xyp9x is the next closest player to the $2m mark (Image Credit: ESL)
Behind dupreeh, there are some fairly impressive earners in the CSGO space. It’s a title that has existed for more than a decade, and that has given rise to many players that have burst onto the scene, made an impression, and remained there for several years. While there’s a regular in-and-out cycle of players, some of the top-tier players in the scene have racked up a remarkable profile, and along with that comes some of the biggest prizes in esports.
Although CSGO is considered one of the top three esports titles in the world, it doesn’t come with the biggest prize pools. At the top of the pile stands Dota 2, which boasts some of the largest prize pools in gaming. For instance, we’ve already mentioned The International – in 2021, this legendary tournament came hand-in-hand with a $40 million prize pool. There’s also a space reserved for League of Legends at the top, but even LoL Worlds, the premier competition in the niche, only boasts a $2.25m prize pool.
Well, we shouldn’t say ‘only’, as once upon a time, esports prize pools were essentially non-existent.
Here are the highest-earning CSGO players behind dupreeh (as of October 2022):
- Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Hojsleth – $1.97m
- Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz – $1.92m
- Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander – $1.82m
- Alexander ‘s1mple’ Kostylev – $1.66m
- Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif – $1.6m
- Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov – $1.51m
- Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen – $1.32m
As there are hundreds of CSGO tournaments every year, the ecosystem will likely never stop being valuable. It’ll only be a matter of time before many more players breach the $2 million mark, but when will dupreeh slow down and, ultimately, retire from competing?
Watch this space.
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