Inside the Salaries of Counter-Strike 2 Top Players

In one of the interviews, ropz said that prize money from tournaments is more like a nice bonus, and that players’ salaries are high. Today, the CS.MONEY Blog will talk about how much esports players earn and who are considered the highest-paid players.

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How much do esports players earn?

Most contracts are confidential, so there is very little exact information about them. However, there are a few confirmed or closed to confirmed data points we can rely on:

• In his video STYKO stated that in 2024 his salary at Apeks was €11,200 per month.
• When a Reddit user discovered ropz’s 2022 tax return, they found that one of the payments was from Germany and amounted to just under €41,000. At the end of 2021, ropz moved from Mouz to FaZe, and it’s logical to assume that this amount might have been his approximate salary.
• In a podcast, said that at Cloud9 his salary was about $39,000 per month (around $1.4 million over 3 years).

Overall, everything depends on the level of play and the region. It’s clear that in Western Europe, salaries are on average much higher than in the East. 

Who gets the highest salary?

It is now obvious that top players’ salaries can be much higher. Among the ones we consider the highest-paid players, we can highlight five nicknames.

• NiKo and m0NESY. That’s because they moved to Team Falcons, which seems to have an unlimited account from its owners. Clearly, both superstars will receive big money, and NiKo likely earns even more. Does it reach a six-digit monthly amount? We can’t rule that out, but we also won’t claim it for sure.
• ZywOo and ropz. Team Vitality is also doing great, and even though they don’t have a credit card from Saudi Arabia, the team is able to pay big money. Why? At least because the club gets players as free agents and doesn’t pay transfer fees. This amount can easily be converted into salary. ZywOo is a franchise player, the team’s cornerstone, and ropz, we think, increased his already good FaZe salary when moving as a free agent. If the Estonian earns less, then not by much.
• Twistzz. The reasons are about the same as for ropz. The Canadian returned to Team Liquid as a free agent and a superstar. The organization clearly made a bet on him. Add to that the fact that the club is North American, so it can afford to pay big salaries.

How much does donk earn?

And what about the best player in the world? We know for sure that his salary isn’t very big. That’s because the CEO of Team Spirit revealed the salary range of all his players during an AMA session. According to him, all players receive from $500 to $30,000 per month. This applies to all games, and the CS2 roster obviously earns more.

There is a suspicion that it’s sh1ro who earns $30,000 at Team Spirit, since he joined the club as a star while donk was still seen as a rookie and academy graduate. It’s likely that when new contract negotiations for donk begin, Team Spirit will have to pay up significantly.

Salaries are an important part of top players’ income, but they also earn a large amount from stickers. You can read about how much players make from stickers in our separate article.