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StaceyPowers

Are esports players underpaid?

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Top esports players obviously earn a lot of money, but I have read that a typical salary for those in the mid tier is more like $50,000-$75,000. Considering the sheer amount of time, work and stress that goes into the job, that actually sounds low to me. How do you feel about it?

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No idea. I figure there are varying tournaments out there, some that pay really good and some that pay a few hundred dollars or less. It depends on the players and the places hosting the tournament. I imagine you have to have a long history of being in esports or gaming tournaments to make the most money. 

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13 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

Top esports players obviously earn a lot of money, but I have read that a typical salary for those in the mid tier is more like $50,000-$75,000. Considering the sheer amount of time, work and stress that goes into the job, that actually sounds low to me. How do you feel about it?

$75 thousand dollars per year is more than an aircraft mechanic makes on average, and mid tier competitors are pretty easy to beat in some competitions. So if mid tier video game players are earning $75 grand a year for basically being in average territory, then they are over paid.

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11 hours ago, Kane99 said:

No idea. I figure there are varying tournaments out there, some that pay really good and some that pay a few hundred dollars or less. It depends on the players and the places hosting the tournament. I imagine you have to have a long history of being in esports or gaming tournaments to make the most money. 

Nope. You can pop into a tournament with a $15 thousand dollar jackpot entirely unannounced (aside from registration) and after having started training 2 weeks prior to the tournament and take the entire prize home right on the spot. E-sports experience can build up skill and experience, or it could quite frankly create negative characteristics in a person such as boredom, exhaustion, depression, etc.

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4 hours ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

$75 thousand dollars per year is more than an aircraft mechanic makes on average, and mid tier competitors are pretty easy to beat in some competitions. So if mid tier video game players are earning $75 grand a year for basically being in average territory, then they are over paid.

4 hours ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

Nope. You can pop into a tournament with a $15 thousand dollar jackpot entirely unannounced (aside from registration) and after having started training 2 weeks prior to the tournament and take the entire prize home right on the spot. E-sports experience can build up skill and experience, or it could quite frankly create negative characteristics in a person such as boredom, exhaustion, depression, etc.

Hmm, this is very informative to me, also asides from the cash prize from tournaments, Esport players also receive salaries from the "companies" that own or sponsor them right?

Just like normal sports teams.

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When I checked for the top earners in 2022 for esports players, the highest earner at the moment is 'Faith_bianZhang Ruida, with estimated annual earnings of '$465,900.00. With such amount in esports, I don't think they're all that underpaid, if you check for female football athletes, they aren't paid up to that annually. 

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Given nurses in the UK make on average ~£34k a year for a significantly more stressful job, requires greater physical activity, and is - let's be honest - significantly more important... no, esports players are not underpaid by any stretch of the imagination.

But what can really be done about it, if anything needs to be done about it? A lot of esports money will be generated from sponserships and advertising deals; the amount of teams kitted out in jerseys with Monster logos ironed on is innumerable, so it's got to go somewhere. Viewership and ticket prices will also generate their salary, with people paying to fill up seats at stadiums or with virtual/digital tickets. Merch in games being sold based on the teams playing the game from Overwatch to SplitGate will, again, get them a healthy cut and go towards hiring the venue to play.

The only way I could see esports players being underpaid was if they couldn't afford to do their jobs, but if they can't afford to play video games on $75k per annum, what are they doing wrong?

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They’re definitely overpaid for how much viewership CoD gets. I mean for Christ’s sake look how dead Cod is on twitch when there isn’t an event. The huge salaries in eSports are all subsidized by the venture capitalist money that is blindly dumped into orgs and the large prize pools are all subsidized by Activision

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As someone who isn't fully into the Esports world when it comes to salary and such, I couldn't say how much is too much or too little. I would think that if they were being paid too little for the work and effort, they put in there would be some kind of uproar about it and that would very likely hit some news sites and that kind of news does tend to get out quite quickly. I would say $50,000 - $75,000 is quite a nice chunk especially for a mid-tier Esports player and it would definitely help them out a lot with what they needed. I know I would be very happy with a salary like that if I was in Esports.

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No, I do not think they are underpaid. Some things that can affect how much money esports players make include how popular the game they play is, how tough the competition is, whether they have sponsors on their team, how skilled they are individually, and how well the whole industry is doing. However, there be occasions where employees are underpaid due to discrimination or how they choose to identify for example. 

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