Reveal the Secrets of Professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) Players’ Salaries

There’s never been a better time to be good at video games than now. One-tapping enemies and securing objectives turned from being a cool party trick to something that could land you a place on the roster and a decent professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) player’s salary.

People whose first introduction to competitive first-person shooters happened through Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, and Counter-Strike 1.6 are old enough to remember the good old days of LAN parties where one would compete for a box of pizza or some spare time in an internet cafe. Cut to 2023, and we have fast food chains, energy drink giants, huge tech companies, car manufacturer brands, and even the US Air Force providing sponsorships to Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) teams and tournaments, significantly contributing to professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) players’ salaries. It took a relatively small amount of time for all these brands to realize where the modern youth’s interest lay, thus allowing esports teams to cut bigger paychecks to their players.

If you want to find out how much the top pros make today and where that money comes from, you’re in for a treat. In this article, we’ll explore and speculate on how much do professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) players make without trying to be overly envious. 

The professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) players’ salaries grow as rapidly as the audience of esports tournaments.

Sources of Income for Professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) Players

One might think that becoming a professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) player is the end goal in terms of getting paid, but, unfortunately, huge salaries, generous sponsorship contracts, and regular tournament earnings are reserved for the top-tier players, while lower-tier players and the local scene pros get paid significantly less. Despite all the aspirations most players have, the big breadwinners club mostly consists of the top 15 Tier A teams, constantly participating in LAN tournaments. Nevertheless, a new organization should have a few sponsors and investors, in order to run a professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) team and be able to pay the players on a monthly basis. Having a few successful tournament runs and qualifying for the big events helps attract new sponsors and investors, thus allowing them to sign better players or raise their salaries as a result of their impressive performances.

Aside from being a virtuoso Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) player, some players benefit from having great or at least polarizing personalities, attracting attention from fans and companies. This helps diversify their income by having a few side gigs and sponsors of their own. Also, an integral part of every pro’s earnings relies on interaction with Valve, as the best teams that end up qualifying for the Major get to receive fat checks from sticker earnings. More on that below. 

Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) pros don’t rely exclusively on prize money.

Prize Money & Top Players By Prize Money Won

It would seem to the average viewer that the prize money is the main source of the players’ earnings. Well, that’s not exactly the case. It is rather a piece of the larger puzzle, and often times it concerns only the teams with consistent performance and multiple winning streaks. The CS tournaments happen once every few months, but the prize pools are usually very substantial. The CS Major is the biggest annual event, and the prize pool starts at $1 million, with the winning team taking anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million. 

What about the team with the most Major wins? How much does a Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) pro get paid for the Major win? No one touches the legendary Astralis roster with three back-to-back and four overall Major wins, each earning them $500,000. For example, Peter “Dupreeh” Rasmussen, one of the members of that legendary Astralis roster, has recently won yet another Major after moving to Team Vitality, making him one of the biggest earners in the Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) pro scene. The top five pretty much consists of Dupreeh’s current and former danish teammates, including Andreas “Xyp9X” Højsleth, another Dane to amass an impressive $2 million in prize money. Aside from the Astralis boys, we should also mention the legendary trio of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Nikola “Niko” Kovač and Finn “karrigan” Andersen, with each of them earning more than $1,5 throughout their lucrative careers. 

The Astralis five and the current GOATs of Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) s1mple and NiKo are the biggest prize pool winners.

Top 5 Biggest Salaries In Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO)

While prize money forms an essential part of a professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) player’s income, it’s the regular salaries that often provide financial stability. These salaries are often linked to the players’ skill level, their media appeal, and the organization they represent. A professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) player’s income mostly consists of their monthly salary. 

For instance, top players like s1mple and NiKo reportedly earn around $50,000 per month, a testament to their prowess and popularity. However, the exact figures remain shrouded in secrecy, often leading to speculation and estimations. None of the organizations disclose this information for multiple reasons. Regardless, it’s clear that a significant part of a professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) player’s income stems from their salaries. There were rumors that Cloud9 might’ve been spending more than $130,000 monthly on player salaries alone before the complete overhaul of their roster. An average of $26,000 per month is not too shabby, don’t you agree? 

Allegedly, the top 10 teams pay more than $10,000 in monthly salaries to each player.

Earnings from Stickers & In-Game Items

Stickers and in-game items have surfaced as significant revenue sources for Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) players. Especially during Major tournaments, stickers bearing players’ autographs or creative designs can bring in substantial income. If a team qualifies for the Major, each player gets to design their own autograph to be applied to a sticker. These stickers sell like crazy, considering that Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) made “over $70 million” from stickers in 2021.

Every Major is followed by a big payday for Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) pros who managed to qualify for the tournament.

Streaming and Advertising Revenue

Now, for the Tier A clubs, where we have the CS elite, that’s where the big money is flowing. Aside from having a hefty monthly salary, these pros often diversify their income by signing a contract or two with various sponsors. The range of these endorsements is quite wide, but what you would mostly see is some tech company ad, a skin-opening service ad, or an energy beverage ad. We’re just narrowing down the list, but realistically, it could be anything, just depends on the willingness of a pro player to endorse such a product and the fact that they don’t breach their contract by signing this endorsement deal. 

There’s, of course, a streaming angle too. Most popular Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) players happen to stream their FPL sessions on Twitch and other streaming platforms, which also generates a considerable amount of money, depending on the player’s popularity. For example, it is speculated that S1mple makes somewhere between $15,000 to $35,000 a month off of his Twitch streams alone. Less popular Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) pros make significantly less, but nevertheless, it is still nice to get paid for streaming your practice games. Aside from Twitch, new emerging platforms can also generate some zeros in the bank account. Back in 2020, Shroud, a former Cloud9 member and arguably the best Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) player at one point, made a surprising move to Microsoft’s own streaming platform Mixer for a jaw-dropping $10 million. This move alone is one of, if not the biggest, professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) players’ salaries, and luckily for Shroud, he got to come back to streaming on Twitch due to Microsoft’s pulling the plug on Mixer.

Now that Twitch is on everyone’s minds when it comes to streaming, the new rival in the face of Kick has emerged. Aside from having less strict rules towards gambling (Kick is a subsidiary of Stake, an online casino), Kick also offers a 95/5 sub split for streamers, which will possibly make a few pro players make a switch. 

Streaming services allow advertising for certain products, such as headphones, keyboards, and energy drinks, while others also allow gambling advertisements.

Wrapping Up!

The thought of being an esports athlete is an alluring dream of many gamers around the world, but the financial factor is not as simple as it may seem and consists of many sources of income that may vary depending on the player’s skill, the team around him, and whether he possesses charisma and a strong persona to draw attention from fans and potential employers. From tournament prize money and salaries to sticker earnings and streaming revenue, each aspect contributes to the overall earnings of a Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) pro.

Understanding these diverse sources provides a comprehensive picture of a player’s income, shedding light on the lucrative potential of a career in esports. Many casuals think that professional Counter-Strike (CS2/CS:GO) players earn too much, but the reality is that only the best of the best will ever see millions in their bank accounts, as the scene is extremely competitive and the lifespan of an esports athlete is rather short, with the exception of some legends like F0rest, olofmeister and karrigan.

We hope you enjoyed this article, and stay tuned for many more. Read our blog for further insights into the world of esports and gaming!