The highest-earning Dota 2 players of all time (2025 update)

Dota 2 is renowned for its grand tournaments that offer a surreal amount of prize money. Its annual pinnacle tournament, The International, is especially massive, with millions of dollars on the line. However, more recently, without the inclusion of a Battle Pass, the prize pools have dwindled. But, with Majors and multiple tournaments offering prize pools of $1,000,000, as well as the more recent Esports World Cups, players are constantly earning insane sums of money.

2025 alone features a crazy thirteen tournaments with this kind of prize pool, not including TI and EWC, both of which are far higher. Beyond this were a few between $250,000 and $750,000, and this was only the Tier 1 tournaments. With that in mind, we can see what Dota 2 players fill up the spots on the highest earners list.

Below, we look at the top 10 highest-earning Dota players of all time, up to and including the latest edition of The International in 2025.

The top 5 highest-earning Dota 2 players remained the same for some time, with OG's two-time winning roster holding strong. However, in the past year, with the likes of the Esports World Cup and many-million-dollar tournaments, everything has begun to change. Although 3 of the OG players remain in the top 5, their lack of professional tournaments has seen them fall into the top 10. While this is still a huge achievement, they might end up falling further down the list in the next season.

The richest Dota 2 player by esports earnings is Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, who is the most decorated Dota 2 player in history. The Danish player was a part of the original OG, which grabbed 4 Major wins, and each offered more than one million USD to the winners. With the additional two TI wins, N0tail climbed ahead of all other esports and Dota 2 players to become the richest in tournament earnings. Even after taking a 3-year hiatus, N0tail remains the highest-earning esports player in the world.

As of October 14th, 2025, N0tail has returned to OG to hopefully bring the team out of their slump, and maybe turn back the hands of time and take their new roster to the top.

Renowned support player Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka started early in esports and was very consistent in his career. The Finnish had a great run with Team Liquid in 2016, finishing 2nd in two Majors and in the top 8 at TI6. He would then become the first player to reach a Valve Major grand final four consecutive times, half with Team Liquid and the other half with OG. He then made history by winning two TIs back-to-back and immediately retired. Jerax retired back in 2022 after a short coaching stint with Team Liquid, but still remains in second place in the standings.

Team Spirit managed to take the Aegis of Champions in both 2021 and 2023. While this should have skyrocketed every player over and above OG, Valve's removal of the Battle Pass would see the TI 2023 prize pool dip to only $3,380,455. This left Spirit only taking a total of $1,521,362 for their victory. However, as the team managed to see some huge wins over the years, including the Riyadh Masters 2023, Miposhka became the player to knock ana off the podium. While the veteran support has recently decided to take a break from competitive play, we are hopeful to see him return in 2026.

Carry player Anathan "ana" Pham started his esports career in 2016, but he skyrocketed to success quickly. The young player began in the Chinese region with Invictus Gaming and then moved to play in Europe with OG. His debut year sees him grab a victory at his first Dota 2 Major, the 2016 Boston Major. The Australian has, in total, won two Majors and the back-to-back TI in 2018 and 2019. Having retired in 2022, ana made one last attempt to return to the game with T1, but it ultimately failed. Now, much like many of the other OG players, ana has not been a part of Dota 2's pro scene, yet remains one of the highest-earning players.

Closing out the top 5 is another new addition, Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov. Once again, Team Spirit's dominance in recent times can be seen across the board. Much like Miposhka, Collapse has taken the team through two-TI victories, as well as various other tournaments. With the EWC 2025 the latest on their list, Collapse pushed his way into the top 5, leaving the likes of Ceb and Topson below. One promising feature from the offlaner is that he is still active on the Spirit roster, which means that he stands to further move in the standings should the team continue to find victories.

A little over a year ago, this list looked very different. The bottom half was populated by Team Spirit players, having won the biggest prize pool in esports history at TI 2021. However, with many of the OG players retired, Spirit's dominant few have moved up in the standings. While OG's players remain in the top 10, they are slowly being drowned out by Spirit, and they could soon see their positions completely disappear.

Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk, known also as Raddan, has quickly become a fan favourite in the carry role for Spirit. Currently holding the highest number of rampages on the main stage of TI, Yatoro, much like his teammates above, has been masterful upon Spirit. Although he has taken a few breaks during his career, his returns are always met with massive plays and big wins with his team. Unfortunately, TI 2025 was disastrous for Spirit, but with a busy schedule to close out the year, Yatoro can quickly move into the top 5.

Once holding firm in the top 5, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs and Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen have been ushered out from their high standings with ease. With both players known well within the OG faithful for their dominance and two-time TI victories, they are slowly falling from the top 10. The simple reasoning behind this is that both players have retired from competitive Dota 2. Although Ceb has joined in as a stand-in during a few events, even making a brief return to the roster, it never amounted to much. For Topson, it was only in early 2025 that he decided to return to Dota 2, although only in a streaming sense.

The final player from Spirit's two-time TI-winning roster sneaks into the top 10 of the Dota 2 highest earning rankings, even though no longer a part of their roster. Having made a name for himself with Spirit, Mira departed from the team in early 2025, joining forces with Aurora Gaming. Although not seeing any major success just yet, Mira is one of those players who could continue to rise up on this list in the future.

In tenth place is Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi, one of THE Dota 2 veterans with numerous achievements in his career. His first big achievement was with NAVI where he earned a 2nd-place finish at TI3 and a top 8 at TI4. At TI5, KuroKy played with Team Secret and finished top 8. He then collected two 2nd-place finishes in Valve Majors in 2016 and finished top 8 at TI6. But his biggest wins were from the victory at TI7 and a 2nd place finish at TI9. Strangely, Kuro remains in the top 10, with his career now solely focused on coaching Nigma Galaxy.

When it comes to esports, players have a chance to earn massive amounts if they can remain consistent and keep winning tournaments. Dota 2 continues to produce the biggest amounts for esports earners, with the top 15 spots all held by players from the well-known MOBA. With the game still going strong and multiple million-dollar tournaments per year, it is unlikely that any other esports will invade Dota 2's rankings. At more than 13 tournaments boasting six-figure prize pools per year, Dota 2 offers its best players much more than the rest.

As players come and go, the rankings will always change, but somehow, N0tail and Jerax have managed to consistently remain at the top. Maybe their time in the professional scene is not yet over, and the 2025/2026 Dota 2 scene still has a lot to reveal.

Many of the remaining places in the top 15 are held by the ex-Team Liquid roster. This includes Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi, Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen, and Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov. All three of these players claimed the TI7 Aegis with Liquid before either retiring or having very little luck within new rosters.

While Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek sneaks up into fourteenth place on the list, fifteenth is probably one of the most talked-about players in Dota 2. Wang "Ame" Chunyu, named as the "King without a crown," has managed to find a spot in the top 15. Although STILL without a TI victory under his belt, with yet another failed Grand Final at TI 2025, his second-place finishes have pushed him into the top 15 of the highest Dota 2 earners.

Surprisingly, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, with his history of numerous victories with Team Secret and NAVI, only drops into the seventeenth spot.

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