League of Legends most certainly doesn’t have the biggest prize pools in esports, but that hasn’t stopped a handful of players from earning well over $500,000 throughout their careers.
While some games, like Dota 2, offer huge tournament winnings, League provides players with a stable income. Pros can make up to $300,000 a year on salary alone and that’s not including sponsorship deals or streaming revenue.
Most League organizations keep player salaries hidden behind closed doors, making tournament winnings the only reliable metric we can use to compare earnings.
With that in mind, here are the five players who have earned the most cash from tournaments since October 2020, according to esportsearnings.com.
5) Bae “Bengi” Seon-woong: $810,683
Bengi is a huge part of what makes T1 the Korean powerhouse they are today, helping the team win three World Championships from the jungle.
In his prime, he was known for his selfless playstyle, protecting and supporting his mid laner with the use of vision, and routine ganks.
4) Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan: $913,084
Wolf, alongside bot lane partner Bang, was a staple of T1 for years. He was instrumental in the team’s global dominance during 2015, 2016, and 2017, helping them win multiple titles.
He’s since retired, taking up streaming as a full-time career. But he still has a keen interest in his former team, following his teammates from behind the scenes.
3) Bae “Bang” Jun-sik: $915,451
Bang joined T1’s main squad in 2014 after a season-long stint with the org’s B team, SK Telecom T1 S.
In his time in Korea, he helped the team secure multiple domestic titles and two World Championships.
His earnings are a combination of successive Worlds titles, MSI wins, and regional dominance with T1. He now plays for North American squad Evil Geniuses.
2) Lee “Duke” Ho-seong: $954,620
Duke earned the lion’s share of his tournament winnings when he won the 2016 League World Championship with T1, beating Samsung Galaxy 3-2 in the finals.
The top laner quickly moved on, though, saying goodbye to Korea and joining the LPL’s Invictus Gaming later that year. There, he celebrated three years of varying success before leaving the squad in 2020.
1) Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok: $1,257,615
Who else but Faker? League’s highest earner is the most celebrated player in history.
Faker is widely considered the greatest player of all time, enjoying years of domestic and international success.
He’s the only League player to earn more than $1 million in prize winnings, thanks to three World Championship and MSI titles, as well as multiple LCK first-place finishes.
All five members were part of the T1/SKT organization once, showing how wildly successful it was over the years.