How To Earn Money from League of Legends

Have you ever wondered how much money does League of Legends make? The business model of Riot Games is based on the free-to-play concept that allows them gaining billions of USD since 2009. According to some insights and public press-releases Riot Games already hit the insane milestone of $1 billion revenue per 2014. In 2015 this sum was already $1,6 billion.
Since 2015 Riot prefers to keep the information about its revenue private but according to the constantly increasing tournament’s prizes we can guess that this sum turns to be even higher. Surely, such income is easy to explain by the desire of LoL gamers pay the developers for receiving boosters and rare skins. But, in fact, League players can easily earn money from their favorite game following the successful paths of pro gamers, bloggers and streamers.

How LoL pros earn their money?

If you have a strong desire to make money playing League of Legends, you need to understand that following this path as hard as any other career. Easy money may turn to be not that easy because the title of “professional LoL player” can be gained only if you are passionate, dedicated and hardworking gamer who is ready to spend most of your lifetime playing the favorite game.
Is this all about you? Then you will definitely succeed! Pro gamers can earn ridiculously big sum of money and more than in one way.

1. Getting a League of Legends salary from Riot Games

Each professional team gets money from Riot Games. It means that every registered professional eSportsman receives the salary ($12,5K per split for a starting player). Also, Riot covers the so-called operating expenses of each team. Surely, the players of the more popular and successful teams get a higher salary from Riot.

2. Receiving prizes from tournaments

How LoL pros earn their money besides a salary? You see, not only the teams of the Worlds get dollars. In 2017 the Worlds raised the prize of more than $6 million. Only a few players shared this sum. But, of course, this is an ultimate dream. A semi-pro League player may easily earn up to a few thousands by taking part in local tournaments. However, you need to check if the sponsors offer any money during such tournaments. In the most cases, the winners get gaming gadgets instead of money prizes.

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3. Streaming services and earnings for pro League players

Due to the profitable subscription payments offered by the largest streaming service Twitch, a professional LoL pro player can earn money by becoming a streamer. What not to earn money from Twitch and loyal fans simply by showing the gamers how they practice. There are two ways of generating an income from Twitch broadcasts:

• Ad revenues – during streams any blogger can turn on the option of showing broadcast adverts to his viewers. Usually such advertisement costs about $1-3.5 per 1K views of the ad. Some pro LoL players manage to earn up to $10K per month only from such views;
• Monthly subscriptions is another official way of getting money from Twitch. Partnered broadcasters may get a 50/50 split from each monthly subscription from a single user that is usually about $4.99 per month. Some players have over 2K of monthly subscribers. You can do the math.

4. Getting direct donations and tips from the fans

During streams or broadcasts on any service like Twitch, Periscope or YouTube a player may ask his fans to support him via direct donation to his PayPal accounts. Some players go to Patreon and set the pledges for the bakers. The donations are purely volunteer and may rise from $5 to thousands of dollars.

The highest income for LoL players: affiliate partnerships

Many LoL players, even if they are not professionals, signed affiliate contracts with sponsors in order to promote their goods or services. You may see some recommendations with links in the stream’s description or a streamer may promote something during his broadcast verbally. Many gamers hide the income from such affiliate deals but, according to some sources, it may rise up to $20K per month. Not bad, considering the other mentioned sources of income, especially if you are under 21 years.
Speaking about how much can a LoL pro player earn per year – it varies. Surely, there are also sponsors who choose to support the favorite teams or players by offering them free clothes, foods and equipment for streams. Such sponsorships are also disclosed due to the marketing purposes, but, be sure, most LoL players make the highest income of such offers.

Top Earning LoL Pros

Here comes the list of the most successful League of Legends pros earning 6-figure salaries and prizes thanks to their awe-inspiring skills in the game. The rating goes from the 10th to the 1st places:

• Jang Hyeong-seok a.k.a. Looper earned over $346K during 2013 World League Championship. He used to be the player of MVP Ozone but after the series of misfortunate losses joined another team Eacho Fox;
• Ming Kai a.k.a. ClearLove earned over $347K being the China’s top LoL earner and longest member of Edward Gaming since 2013. He is still faithful to EDG team;
• Cho Se Hyeong a.k.a. Mata earned over $371K during his glory days as the member of Samsung White team that won the 2014 Worlds. After the disbandment of White he joined the Vici Gaming and later was transferred to Royal Never Give Up team. Right now he is the most transferable pro player who plays under the logo of KT Rolster;
• Heo Won Seok a.k.a. PawN earned over $394K as the dedicated member of Samsung White. Later he joined EDG team as a mid laner and reunited once again with the former mate Mata as a regular member of KT Rolster;
• Kang Sun-Gu a.k.a. Blank earned over $419K during the 2016 World as the member of the legendary SKT Telecom T1 being positioned as a substitute jungler;
• Lee Ho Seong a.k.a. Duke earned over $450K being the top laner in the same South Korean team in 2016. He left SKT and joined Invictus Gaming along with Megan, JackeyLove and RooKie;
• Bae Jun Sik a.k.a. Bang earned over $631K as one more shining member of SKT player by occupying the position of AD Carry. He gained wins during Worlds 2015 and 2016;
• Lee Jae Wan a.k.a. Wolf earned over $635K being a support player of Bang from SKT team. He will continue playing in this team this season;
• Bae Seong Ung a.k.a. Bengi got over $810K being one of the best world’s junglers in LCK team and top earning LoL pros. Right now he reunited with Easyhoon at Vici Gaming for 2017-2018 seasons;
• Lee Sang Hyeok a.k.a. Faker earned over $897K being the king of the mid lane. He is considered as one of the most successful eSportsmen ever, especially during his glory days in SKT team.

Such table of earnings of top LoL players may give a rise to your imagination that being a professional gamer is not that difficult. Maybe, but prepare to the fact that this is not a 9-5 job. You are to improve your physical and mental skills all the time in order to become more successful. This career is not that funny as it seems, you are to compete the best of the best players. Tension, lack of free time, crunches and other downsides may, however, be outshined by the sweet victory and a big salary. Everyone can make money from LoL – just needs to take this occupation very seriously. Start your professional League career from buying hand-leveled accounts from SmurfStore Corp. Such smurf accounts will help you train with different champions on various positions in order to win local championships.