When I was younger, playing video games was simply a fun pastime that you could enjoy with a friend or two. However, nowadays for some, it’s become a profession. And the landscape is changing. It’s becoming more and more diverse, and the days of video games being dominated by 16-25 year old males are well and truly behind us.
That’s right, the girls are here and in some cases are taking over! If you visit an eSports bookmaker these days, you will find many females listed as favourites to win certain tournaments. With this in mind, we thought we would take a look at some of the highest paid female players and take a look at what sets them apart.
Scarlett AKA Sasha Hostyn – Earnings $472K
Scarlets is by far the most successful female eSports player. She has almost doubled the earnings of the second placed female on this list, which gives you an indication of just how much she is in a league of her own.
The 31-year-old Canadian is best known for playing Starcraft II. She shot to fame by becoming the first ever female winner of a Starcraft II tournament. After bouncing around playing for various teams over the years, she seems to have settled at Shopify Rebellion who she has represented since 2019.
She has won 44 tournaments over the years with her biggest career win coming back in 2018 when she won the Intel Extreme Masters Season XII, pocketing a mouth watering $50,000. Scarlett pins her successes on her dedication to learning her trade and she even moved to Korea in 2015 to hone her skills and master Starcraft II. The move has paid off in dividends and it will probably be a very long time before any other females get even remotely near her in the prize fund rankings.
Liooon AKA Li XiaoMeng – Earnings $241K
Although Liooon has almost half of the earnings that Scarlett has won, let’s not forget she has won almost a quarter of a million dollars playing video games (let that sink in!). She has also set records within the industry by becoming the first female Hearthstone Global Champion and the first winner to come from China. She was also the first female to win a BlizzCon eSports tournament.
Her journey in the industry unfortunately began like many other females by being mocked by others simply for her gender. She then set out to prove them wrong and she continues to do that today. However, her eSports break came almost by chance when she was a backup player at a Hearthstone tournament. Since that day she has grown in confidence and is now considered one of the best Hearthstone players in the world, regardless of gender.
Alexis AKA Alexis Guarrasi – Earnings $131K
Alexis is a team mate of Scarlett and although she is over $300,000 behind her, we have to remember that Alexis is almost ten years her junior.
Alexis and her team have dominated the Valorant scene for the past few years and having won the Valorant Champions Tour four years in a row, it would appear that they are unstoppable.
Her love for gaming was passed down from her mother so you could say that it’s in her DNA. However, to date, she has only competed professionally on the females circuit and she’s looking to make moves against the males this year.
Girl Gamers
Although the eSports world is still predominantly spearheaded by males, it’s clear that this is slowly changing. The number of professional female eSports players has grown year upon year which can be contributed to by many different things. There are more tournaments these days, more streaming platforms etc.
But perhaps the biggest thing that has changed is people’s attitudes. People are more accepting that females can do anything that males can do. And with role models like these three to look up, we’re sure that the 1.3 billion female gamers out there will soon become even more.
