Esports is a lucrative industry for a lot of professional players; these players have the highest career earnings in League of Legends
Riot’s League of Legends is one of the most popular online games in the world, spanning 180 million players worldwide. The company has a healthier approach to competitive gaming, preferring to keep tournament leagues in-house to monitor ensure quality and stability.
As as result, Riot pays professional players salary, in addition to career earnings and profit sharing (like receiving a percentage of the proceeds through partnered skins). Thus, it isn’t quite fair to compare prize pools with other successful esports. Knowing all of that, here are the players with the highest career earnings in League of Legends esports.
Bae “Bengi” Sung-woong — $810,683
Bengi is a retired League of Legends professional player turned coach for the SKT T1 Esports Team. In his time as a competitor in the biggest League of Legends event in the world, Bengi unleashed unbelievable skills as a Jungler using Lee Sin or Elise in the Summoner’s Rift.
Bengi started his pro-playing career in 2013 when he bagged the championship title against KT Rolster Bullets in the Champions Summer 2013. Moreover, Bengi is one of the players from SKT T1 who had the historical two consecutive championship wins
Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan — $913,084
Lee Jae-wan, better known as Wolf, is a professional player for the SKT T1 Esports team for League of Legends. Wolf is a prominent support player that always keeps his carry intact and protected at all costs. As such, Wolf’s most notable plays are in his time laning with his teammate, Bang.
In 2015 and 2016, Wolf, alongside his teammates from SKT T1 won 2 consistent championship wins from League of Legends World Championship events, taking home $2 Million for their team. As of now, Wolf is now retired to compete in competitions. He is living his life now as a streamer for SKT T1. Wolf’s signature champions include Alistar, Tahm Kench, and Soraka.
from 2015 against KOO Tigers and 2016 against Samsung Galaxy.
Bae “Bang” Jun-Sik — $915,846
Bae Jun-Sik, also known as Bang, is another professional League of Legends player for the SKT T1 and also a streamer and content creator under the said company. Bang is the official ADC of the SKT T1 Esports team. Bang’s signature champions are Kalista and Jhin.
Aside from his fellow teammates, Bang is also retired from his pro-playing days as an excellent carry and continues showing off his impressive skills by streaming his games online. And in 2015 and 2016, Bang dominated the bot lane alongside Wolf as his support.
Lee “Duke” Ho-seong — $954,620
Duke is an ex-professional League of Legends player and now serves as a coach for the team Ninjas in Pyjamas. Duke is an absolute beast in the Top lane and he dominates his enemies whenever using Irelia, Renekton, and Jax. In addition, Duke was a previous Top laner for the SKT T1 last 2015 and 2016 in which they won two championships in a row.
Not only that, in 2018, Duke never ceased to amaze the League of Legends community by winning the World Championship against Fnatic Esports winning home $2.4 Million with a score of 3:0. Duke, like before, single-handedly overwhelmed his opponent at the Top lane using his Irelia.
Lee “Faker” Sang Hyeok —$1,470,490
Lee Sang-Hyeok, better known as Faker in the League of Legends Esports has the most career earnings of all time. Earning him a total of $1.4 Million from all the competitions he joined in his whole career.
As such, Faker started his fame back in 2013 when he first joined the World Championship Season 3. Because of his mind-blowing display of skills against multiple enemies, he is also dubbed the “Unkillable Demon King” in the community. Furthermore, Faker’s most notable win where he leads SKT T1 in two consecutive championship titles from 2015 and 2016.