In August, the company acquired Omnia Media and expanded its reach to a total of 300 million gamers monthly, making it the largest gaming media platform in North America. Team Liquid began as a gaming community website and forum founded in 1998, but it truly started its rise to the top of the eSports world when it began sponsoring a Starcraft: Brood War team in 2010. Alongside Fortnite and PLAYERUNKNOWNS BATTLEGROUNDS, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive accounts for over 60% of its earnings. They are known for their League of Legends, Dota 2, and StarCraft II teams but have recently expanded into CS: GO and Hearthstone. The organization also brought home more than $25K from Fortnite and $4.6K in Electronic Arts Apex Legends. Perhaps the biggest surprise is despite Fortnite being the name video game of 2018, it doesnt appear anywhere near the top of the high-earning tournament games. Gamer Murat "Arbalet" Zhumashevich created an open invite for all like-minded players to form a team. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Misfits also compete in all three of the major franchised leagues, owning the Florida Mayhem in Overwatch, and acquiring the Florida franchise spot for their Mutineers team ahead of the 2020 Call of Duty League season. Tundra doing well by winning over 40.00% of their recent matches. Their League of Legends team won the first League of Legends World Championship in 2011. Dota2, in particular, appears to be where most of the money is nowadays.Cumulative prizes for Dota 2 nearly reached $50 million in 2021. The deal could pump new resources into Activisions esports leaguesor esports could become an afterthought in Microsofts massive budget. According to Newzoo, the number of esports enthusiasts worldwide will reach 165 million in 2018, which translates to year-over-year growth of 15%. To them, eSports is as legitimate a sport as football and basketball are to the more athletically oriented. He has sponsorships with Samsung, Red Bull and Uber Eats. The fanfare around the sky-high valuation assigned to FaZe in the fall masked some fundamental concerns about its businessissues that became more acute when, in an amended SEC filing last week, it revised its forecasts downward. Following this, the market saw immense growth going into 2020 with a 15% rise on the previous year. Cloud 9 sit top of the tree with an estimated value of $400 million, and $29 million in revenue. Once again, TSM, owned by Andy Dinh, leads the way, rising 32% to $540 million. (Newzoo, 2021) Meanwhile, the global esports market combined with games streaming is expected to be worth $2.1 billion in 2021 and more than $3.5 billion by 2025. Like traditional sports, esports provides income sources and career opportunities. They have teams in Dota, Starcraft II, CS:GO and several others - and have $24 million worth of prize money under their belts. 10 spot. The company, founded by former Call of Duty champion Matthew Nadeshot Haag, 28, expects to make $16 million in revenue this year, a leap of 60%. G2 Esports, the highest-ranked company outside of Los Angeles County, with its headquarters in Berlin, is branching out from esports with video content around its teams and a record label, G2 Music. Monetization remains the principal challenge for literally every esports team, says Bobby Sharma, a private equity investor and the managing partner at advisory firm Electronic Sports Group. The average value of the top ten teams flatlined at $240 million in 2020, following a 54% rise in 2019, according to our exclusive annual ranking of the most valuable esports companies. Their breakthrough came in the Frankfurt Major 2015, where they defeated Evil Geniuses, CDEC Gaming, and Team Secret. The team makes an estimated $9 million per year and is valued at $185 million. G2 has teams competing in. The Dallas Empire are the winners of the inaugural season of Activision Blizzards Call of Duty League. Since then it has won more than 100 gold, 170 silver and 220 bronze medals in various eSports tournaments. The net worth for the team is $24,384. Newbee is a Chinese e-Sports team. NRG is worth an estimated $155 million this year, up 3%. However, the Russia-based esports organization also competes in titles such as Fortnite and Apex Legends. By estimation, it will be worth around $1.62 billion by 2024. There are also ideas emerging around so-called play-to-earn games, which reward users with NFTs or cryptocoins. Theyre very much Dota 2 specialists. League did everything they could to be successful in 2020. 1 ranking. Team Spirit is now stationed in Belgrade, Serbia. The top 10 esports companies are worth an average of $353 million, a 46% increase compared to December 2020. Some of the gap was filled with its higher-margin online content business, including sponsored streams on Twitch and videos on YouTube. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. 2 company, 100 Thieves, which counts Drake, music mogul Scooter Braun and billionaire Dan Gilbert among its. This month, the five-year old company, which is owned by Jack and Paullie Etienne, raised $50 million in Series B funding. At this stage, most are trying to find their way around the maze, with some stuck on a hamster wheel. Mercedes Benz Esports: The Next Big Thing? Our company appraisals are based on the valuations that were applied during each companys most recent capital raise, comparable esports transactions and their prospects. For the first time since 2014, Fnatic comes in under the $1M mark, through no real fault of its own, riding its CS:GO team and the $321K it made in 2020 to the No. Dota2, in particular, appears to be where most of the money is nowadays.Cumulative prizes for Dota 2 nearly reached. Last year there was approximately $240M up for grabs in esports prize pool winnings. Using NFTs to sell the in-game digital items known as skins would allow teams to collect a fee if the item was resold, the way that Dapper Labs collects a percentage of any trade of its NBA Top Shot NFTs on the secondary market. This organizations prize pool money is directly tied to the Dota 2 scene and hopes to see, along with many other organizations, Valve revive the scene in 2021. What could go wrong? It has built a series of teams for different games. On top of that, talent is getting considerably more expensive, with players of the up-and-coming game Valorant able to demand as much as $30,000 a month, according to industry insiders. If your goal is just to be the Dallas Cowboys and just operate in competitive gaming, that is cool, but its a long way off, says Andy Miller, CEO of NRG and co-owner of the NBAs Sacramento Kings. To compile this ranking, Forbes spoke to two dozen esports organizations, investors, advisors to investors, and analysts. Vici Gaming 11. was concerned taking home $1.017M playing in 12 events that survived the pandemic. 10 spot. Its a shootout to see who can be the biggest and baddest brand. Founded in 2016, its become home to over 90 gamers from around the globe. League operations during the pandemic was instrumental in making sure the North American esports scene remained relevant. They also operate in games like Fortnite, Smite, and StarCraft 2, and according to Forbes, their estimated revenue sits at $5 million, with a total valuation of $120 million. Million-dollar sponsorship deals are few and far between right now in esports. The company launched the community initiative Liquid+ last year and has a video content production arm in 1UP Studios and an influencer management agency in Liquid Media while still maintaining ownership of the wiki network Liquipedia. Another CIS team from top 10 best esports teams of our list is Team Spirit. Here are some of the richest professional gamers in the world. List of Top 10 eSports Teams 1. Last year, Team Secret was fifth on this list with $3.36M. N0tail (Johan Sundstein) 7.18. FaZe Clan announced plans in October 2021 to go public through a merger with blank-check company B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp., valuing the combined entity at $1 billion. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Games go in and out of style, which would mean companies would need to drastically change their rosters. Giant companies and wealthy individuals alike have invested in esports, from organizations and teams to tournaments and events. League the team took home a cool $900K to go along with its winnings from the various tournaments during league play. Topping the list: Los Angeles-based TSM (formerly Team SoloMid), with a value of $410 million. FaZe Clan also plays Rainbow Six Siege, COD: WWII, and Valorant, and are the 2021 Call of Duty League Champions. Virtus.pro 9. Sponsorships help too. ESL Shop offers a wide range of merchandise from CS:GO and Dota2 merch to official clan wear of teams like Virtus Pro, FaZe, ENCE, BIG, fnatic, G2 Esports and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Numerous individuals from the franchise's past, and some . The eye-watering valuations for the rest of the top ten similarly belie the reality of the industry right now: Esports is a tough business, and in some ways getting tougher, and the rise in these companies valuations is largely being driven not by their esports teams but by their other divisions. This is a BETA experience. A year ago, esports companieswhich play competitive versions of games like Fortnite and Call of Duty, sometimes in front of crowds of 40,000 or morewere gushing about war chests; oversubscribed funding rounds; celebrity investors like Drake, Stephen Curry and Jennifer Lopez; and a future that would see gaming teams eclipsing NFL teams in monetary value. (Joint) Team SoloMid (Valued $400 million), Florida Mayhem compete in the Overwatch League. We take a look at the top 10 richest eSports teams in history. Thus far, there have been 63 deals worth $2.34 billion in 2018. With esports events like the 2019 League of Legends World Championships bringing in almost four million concurrent viewers across Twitch and YouTube, its no surprise that competitive gaming is now a multi-million dollar industry, and shows no signs of slowing down. Image credit: Roman Kosolapov. scene and hopes to see, along with many other organizations, Valve revive the scene in 2021. With revenue expected to fall to $8.5 million this year, the teams value isless than half the $260 million Forbes estimated in 2019. team that brought in the bulk of this years prize money; bringing in $641K including a $500K payday by winning Flashpoint Season 2. Of all the biggest eSports organizations, SoloMid and Cloud9 are the most valuable. As one point of comparison, this years Super Bowl drew an average of 112 million viewers, according to NBCUniversal. But while money is pouring into the metaverseFortnite publisher Epic Games announced last month that it had raised $1 billion in funding to support its metaverse initiativethose days are a long ways off, and game makers are in no rush to cede control. Founded in 2014 and hailing from China, Wings Gaming were the second richest eSports team, despite only being . The San Francisco Shock, champions of Season 3 of the Overwatch League, took home $1.55M in prize money out of a total prize pool of $3.05M over the course of the regular season and playoffs. It may also look to launch consumer products around its famous personalities. The World's Most Valuable Sports Teams 2021 Getty Images 1. Team Spirit have divisions in Counter Strike: Global Offensive (2016), Dota 2 (2015), Hearthstone (2016) and League of Legends (2022). March 2, 2023 4:45 pm ET. 1. Teams are also constrained in how they can make their money because they dont own the intellectual property of the games they compete inthey cant, for example, sell a special gun in Call of Duty without the consent of the games publisher, Activision Blizzard. Paid subscriptions are also a great way for streamers to bring in revenue. Sponsored teams make ads, wear sponsored merch, and share affiliate links with their followers. 7 on the list. LGD Gaming 15. New Series: DRIVEN with Michelle Wie West. This represents a 70% growth in the next four years. 1. Evil Geniuses are one of only a few teams to have mixed rosters - with their Valorant team consisting of both men and women. TSM and Gen.G have launched training apps while companies like ReKTGlobal and LOUD run successful marketing agencies. . FaZe would go on to lose to eventual champion Dallas Empire in the Winners Finals. The Walt Disney Company chose Team Liquid to participate in the 'Disney Accelerator' program in 2017. team that carried the day, winning two out of the four events they played in, taking home $1.1M in prize money. Many esports companies raised capital based on inflated expectations of how the market will come together, particularly in the U.S., says Jens Hilgers, founding general partner of esports investor Bitkraft Ventures and co-owner of G2 Esports, which ranks No. Theres a broad-based agreement that esports as a stand-alone doesnt work as a business, one team executive says bluntly. On June 10, 2021, FaZe Clan became the first esports team to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. However, much like G2, Liquid has diversified its team portfolio and brings in money from multiple titles. Top Projects and E-sports players The game launch event will begin with an insightful talk featuring industry experts from the gaming world. Intel invests in IEM and the Overwatch League Net worth: $200 billion FaZe would go on to lose to eventual champion. Riot Games and its League of Legends World Championship along with Activision Blizzards Overwatch and Call of Duty League Championships were the big money drivers in 2020 and did esports a great service by finding ways to keep the esports competitive scene moving. 8. He is betting that an expansion into Fortnite will help take him there. All Rights Reserved. Big companies approach teams with bids and contracts when they gain notoriety for their skills and a considerable fan base. eSports-Teams werden in den Arenen der groen Meisterschaften gefeiert wie Fuballclubs. No team in Forbes ranking has appreciated more than 100 Thieves, which was fifth on the 2020 list at $190 million. FaZe now boasts over 230 million followers across all its related social platforms and is worth $305 million to rank No. The team finished second at The International 2014. Here are the Top 5 Richest Esports Organizations: 5. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. If it were negotiating terms now, it would likely fetch an even higher price. According to their annual report, Cloud9 is now worth an incredible $400 million. The top 10 esports companies are worth an average of $353 million, a 46% increase compared to December 2020. TSMs forward thinking brought in $125K in chess winnings to go along with monies won from playing in many different titles that dont require a ton of expenses. 2023 Front Office Sports. The organization will look to its multi-game approach once again in 2021 with the hopes that more events become available as more tournament organizers become comfortable running live events with the permission of local governments. In 2021, global esports revenues are expected to reach $1,084 million, representing a year-on-year growth of 14.5%. Gen.G looks set to enter a period of rapid growth; the company says it signed more sponsorships in terms of total deal value in the first quarter of 2022 than in all of 2021, putting it on pace to grow revenue 100% year over year. G2 Esports (commonly shortened to just G2 and formerly known as Gamers2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in League of Legends, Valorant, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, and iRacing. Reach Mike Ozanian at mozanian@forbes.com. Live-event cancellations hit revenue by 23%, and the company began unloading teams. Total Prize Money Earned: $18,385,456.79. Esports is a rapidly-growing industry, and Forbes has revealed the 13 richest organizations in the professional gaming scene, including fan-favorite teams like TSM, Cloud9, and FaZe Clan. All Rights Reserved. With a diversified team fielding structure, TSM participated and won money in 11 different games including, TSM was able to win $158K in prize money in. he nascent esports industry resembles the Wild West. The announcement last month that the company, based in Santa Monica, California, is returning to competition in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive may reinforce that image, but even C9 is creating new lines of business with Training Grounds, a coaching app, and with Stratus, a subscription service for super-fans. For Spacestation, it was its R6 team that carried the day, winning two out of the four events they played in, taking home $1.1M in prize money. Team Spirit beat PSG.LGD in the Grand Finals of The International 2021, earning more than $18 million, the highest prize ever awarded in eSports. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, too, would feel the crunch as large prize pool events such as the ESL One Rio Major and its $2M were lost to the pandemic. The Biggest Esports Sponsors in the World 1. Viewers of certain streams may donate money to their favorite players. You may opt-out by. 6 this year. Coca-Cola 7. Enthusiast Gaming is ranked for the first time. Sumails father gained a job in the USA, and Sumail joined Evil Geniuses in January 2015. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. In the Forbes annual list of the most valuable eSports organizations, two teams share the top spotSoloMid and Cloud9. Virtus.pro competes in two of the top esports with teams in CS:GO and Dota 2 which brought in the bulk of its prize money in 2020. Gen.G are a Korean-based esports organization. Cloud9 recently announced a major apparel partnership with Puma, releasing their first collection in October 2019. (Joint) Misfits Gaming (Valued $120 million)11. If theres one thing clear, its that nobody has found their way out.. FaZe Clan 14. FaZe finished the regular season as the No. The organization also brought home more than $25K from, brought home the bulk of its 2020 prize money from. This year? Team Liquid belongs on any list featuring the biggest or best esports organizations. Fnatic 8. The Los Angeles-based company, which is developing a lifestyle brand at the intersection of apparel, entertainment and esports, in December announced a $60 million funding round at a $460 million valuation. Our 12 companies have an average enterprise value of 13 times 2018 estimated sales. Paid subscriptions are also a great way for streamers to bring in revenue. No. By creating a plan and pivoting to online events, NRGs umbrella teams were able to take home a significant amount of money. It even supports television coverage, for those who still prefer the big screen, rather than livestreaming via Twitch on their tablet or phone.