Online gaming is a phenomenon. Now, it is one of the world’s biggest forms of entertainment that has overtaken film, music, and traditional sports industries in both numbers and awareness. It is worth more than $150 million and has an estimated 2.8 billion gamers, respectively.
Aside from fun, another factor that brings online gaming to the limelight is the level of sophistication, prestige, and expertise of its esports sector. These are organised multiplayer video game tournaments where only the best competitive gamers and teams compete for prize pools, awards and, of course, glory for the nation they represent.
Today’s statistics on the highest-paid esports players reported a diverse list of countries. Examples include Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein of Denmark, Jesse ‘JerAx’ Vainikka of Finland, and Sébastien ‘Ceb’ Debs of France. So, let’s have a look at which other nations consistently produce the best of the best and, of course, see which names to look forward to when betting on esports Bitcasino.
1. South Korea
Known as the country that kickstarted esports in the early 2000s, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that South Korea takes the lead. Thanks to the massive support from its national government, it sure has changed the landscape of online gaming today.
South Korea’s most notable esports star is Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok. He is the highest-paid League of Legends (LoL) player with total prize winnings of $1.3 million.
2. China
The Chinese national government was initially opposed to competitive gaming. It all changed in 2019 when its growing fame forecasted that the country would become the world’s second-largest esports market after the U.S. True enough, Newzoo’s 2020 online gaming statistics reported that it’s the richest state with revenue worth $44,263 million.
The Chinese gamers who have risen through the ranks are LoL star Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao and Dota 2 winner Lu “Somnus \ M” Yao.
3. United States
Of course, any list regarding entertainment activities and tech advancements wouldn’t miss out on the U.S’ contributions. Right after China, its online gaming is worth $42,107 million, where 53.1% of its population are digital gamers and a quarter of it is monthly viewers of esports tournaments.
The U.S. is a powerhouse in online gaming companies. It is the home to the world’s largest and richest esports tournaments like Valve’s Dota 2 The International and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championships. So, it shouldn’t be also a surprise that some of the games’ highest-earning players are also Americans: Saahil ‘Universe’ Arora, Peter ‘ppd’ Dager, and Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis.
4. Sweden
Sweden recently made headlines when its Swedish Sports Federation ruled out esports as part of the organisation and that The International is not an ‘elite sporting event’. That being said, these statements couldn’t erase the fact that gaming is popular in the country. It produced $231 million in 2018 and has more than three million gamers. Most of its best talents that you might find in esports Bitcasino are Dota 2 and CS:GO players. Examples are Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson and Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg.