KOLKATA: There’s no stopping Magnus Carlsen. Even in a year gone haywire by the pandemic, the Norwegian Grandmaster adjusted to the new normal well and emerged as the highest-earning esports player of 2020.
The 31-year-old World No. 1 took home a whopping $510,587 as prize money on Chess24 website. This amount was more than the one earned by any other esports athlete across all other professional games.
Chess hardly qualified as an esports competition, but the pandemic resulted in many chess competitions to go online.
But according to research from Seattle-based esports bookmaker Unikrn, a poor market forced most organisers to cut down on the prize money too.
The report said the total prize money available to esports professionals dropped significantly in just one year with the earnings of esports’ top 50 players falling by a massive 80 per cent, from $55 million in 2019 to $11 million in 2020.
But even in such a scenario, Carlsen surprised many by coming out on top. Interestingly Carlsen also led the Premier League’s official fantasy football table once.
A spokesperson for Unikrn said in a press release: “When people think of esports, they probably have the likes of CS:GO, DOTA or League of Legends in mind, but not necessarily chess. Magnus Carlsen (playing as AKA DrNykterstein) is a fantastic champion and has dominated the circuit for a number of years, helping raise the profile of the sport. It’s great to see an esport such as chess come to prominence in this way.”
Of the top 50 highest earners in esports, four had made their money through Chess24. Call of Duty, DOTA 2 and Rainbow Six Seige also appeared prominently on the list.
Apart from Carlsen, four other chess players feature in the top 50 highest earners through esports with US GMs Hikaru Nakamura being placed number 7 ($324,645) and Wesley So at 12 ($246,180).
The 31-year-old World No. 1 took home a whopping $510,587 as prize money on Chess24 website. This amount was more than the one earned by any other esports athlete across all other professional games.
Chess hardly qualified as an esports competition, but the pandemic resulted in many chess competitions to go online.
But according to research from Seattle-based esports bookmaker Unikrn, a poor market forced most organisers to cut down on the prize money too.
The report said the total prize money available to esports professionals dropped significantly in just one year with the earnings of esports’ top 50 players falling by a massive 80 per cent, from $55 million in 2019 to $11 million in 2020.
But even in such a scenario, Carlsen surprised many by coming out on top. Interestingly Carlsen also led the Premier League’s official fantasy football table once.
A spokesperson for Unikrn said in a press release: “When people think of esports, they probably have the likes of CS:GO, DOTA or League of Legends in mind, but not necessarily chess. Magnus Carlsen (playing as AKA DrNykterstein) is a fantastic champion and has dominated the circuit for a number of years, helping raise the profile of the sport. It’s great to see an esport such as chess come to prominence in this way.”
Of the top 50 highest earners in esports, four had made their money through Chess24. Call of Duty, DOTA 2 and Rainbow Six Seige also appeared prominently on the list.
Apart from Carlsen, four other chess players feature in the top 50 highest earners through esports with US GMs Hikaru Nakamura being placed number 7 ($324,645) and Wesley So at 12 ($246,180).
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