ReportKOCCA – Korea Creative Content Agency
2025 eSports Player Rankings: By Game and Earnings in Korea
1 Jan 20256 pages~5 min full read
League of Legends remains the most lucrative eSports title in South Korea, with top earner Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) accumulating $1.88 million in prize money as of July 2025.
Established titles offer significantly higher financial returns than newer games, as evidenced by StarCraft II leader Cho Sung-choo earning $1.39 million and PUBG leader Park Jung-young earning $1.25 million.
Newer competitive titles show a substantial earnings gap compared to legacy games, with top Overwatch 2 player Choi Tae-min earning $375,450 and Valorant leader Kim Jong-min earning $164,980.
The South Korean professional gaming market lacks a unified national ranking system, relying instead on a fragmented structure where success is measured by game-specific milestones.
Data compiled by the Korea Creative Content Agency indicates that cumulative wealth in the sector is heavily concentrated among elite players at the top of their respective disciplines.
The analysis tracks professional performance longitudinally from 2010 through mid-2025, reflecting a mature market where longevity in a competitive scene correlates with higher career earnings.
South Korea’s professional gaming landscape is characterized by a title-centered evaluation system where prize earnings are highly concentrated among elite players. Analysis of the country’s top eSports competitors across five major PC-based titles—League of Legends, StarCraft II, Valorant, Overwatch 2, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)—reveals significant disparities in cumulative wealth based on the longevity and global scale of each game’s competitive scene.
League of Legends remains a dominant sector, with Lee Sang-hyeok (Faker) leading all players with approximately $1.88 million in prize money as of July 2025. This exceeds the top earners in other disciplines, such as Cho Sung-choo (Maru) in StarCraft II, who earned $1.39 million, and Park Jung-young (Loki) in PUBG, who secured $1.25 million. In contrast, newer or more recently transitioned titles like Overwatch 2 and Valorant show lower cumulative earnings, with top players Choi Tae-min (MER1T) and Kim Jong-min (Lakia) earning $375,450 and $164,980 respectively.
The data, sourced from eSports Earnings and compiled by the Korea Creative Content Agency, utilizes a longitudinal methodology tracking performance from as early as 2010 through mid-2025. While the rankings for League of Legends, StarCraft II, and Valorant reflect 2025 figures, the data for Overwatch 2 and PUBG is current through late 2024. This segmentation highlights a fragmented domestic performance structure where success is measured by game-specific milestones rather than a unified national ranking. The findings underscore a mature market where established titles continue to provide the highest financial returns for top-tier professional talent.
