Twitch leak reveals who the richest Dota 2 streamers are
An enormous Twitch leak has rocked the world of streaming, and the realm of Dota 2 wasn’t left out of it.
Tens of thousands of streamers had their earnings revealed after a 120-gigabyte leak revealed private emails, user data, and even Twitch’s source code. Much of the focus of these leaks was on the million-dollar annual salaries of streaming personalities including Felix “xQc” Lengyel and Turner “Tfue” Tenney, but it wasn’t just those massive multi-game streamers who had their incomes leaked.
Top Dota 2 streamers were also among the personalities who had their financials exposed to the world. Though no Dota 2-focused streamer placed higher than the top 200, the biggest names are still making a pretty penny. Here are Dota 2’s richest streamers:
Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg $526,618.63 Janne “Gorgc” Stefanovski $354,053.28 Wehsing “SingSing” Yuen $241,168.82 Mason “mason” Venne $184,843.78 Brian “BSJ” Canavan $137,627.26 Niklas “Wagamama” Högström $129,229.51 Kevin “Purge” Godec $104,681.91 Stray228 $88,148.15 Artour “Arteezy” Babaev $67,486.52 Troels Lyngholt “syndereN” Nielsen $61,725.86 ybicanoooobov $58,227.81 Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann $57,856.60 Jaron “monkeys-forever” Clinton $50,498.38
It’s worth noting that these figures do not include all forms of income for streamers and are strictly a combination of subscriptions, ad revenue, and bits.
These numbers do not account for any Patreon support, donations, organization salaries, individual sponsorships, affiliate deals, or esports winnings. It doesn’t include any income from YouTube either.
Worth noting is that there has been some discussion regarding the accuracy of this leak, with streamers such as AsmonGold saying that the numbers are inaccurate. Twitch has confirmed there was a significant information breach but has not confirmed the veracity of these figures. Other streamers have suggested that the numbers are legitimate.
AdmiralBulldog, Gorgc are Dota 2’s richest streamers
AdmiralBulldog is Dota 2’s highest-earning streamer by a considerable margin, with Gorgc coming in second. Anyone that keeps tabs on Dota 2 knows that AdmiralBulldog and Gorgc have large and dedicated followings despite finding themselves at the center of a number of controversies.
Behind them are a number of prominent Dota 2 personalities including Singsing, Wagamama, mason, and others. Dota 2’s top-earning streamers are all also predominantly focused on streaming and nothing else. Though there are many pro players and commentators mixed in, it’s the full-time streamers that are comfortably at the top of this list.
Dota 2 pros don’t make all that much from streaming
While there are few surprises in terms of the most lucrative Twitch streamers in Dota 2, something that’s a bit surprising is who missed out on the list. Generally speaking, pro players make relatively little on Twitch despite having greater visibility in the esports industry as a whole.
Prominent Dota 2 pros such as Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen, Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao, and Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann rank inside the top 10,000 highest-paid streamers but don’t make anywhere close to the same money as dedicated streamers, with those three making between $24,000 and $57,000. Many other active professionals fall within that same range.
Constant streaming grinds are intentionally rewarded by Twitch, and pro players have historically been forced to divide their time between streaming and competing. There is one big exception to this, though.
Streamer income varies wildly by region
Something that’s worth noting when it comes to streamer income wildly varies based upon the region the personality hails from. Generally speaking, European and Brazilian Dota 2 streamers tend to bring in the biggest bucks.
Former Gambit Esports player Nikita “Daxak” Kuzmin is one of Dota 2’s most prolific streamers and most-viewed streamers right now, and is the 25th-largest Russian language stream on Twitch according to Twitch Tracker. That wasn’t enough to see him place inside the top 10,000 highest-earning streamers.
Many Dota 2 pros who stream regularly also aren’t earning as much as one would expect.
Purely looking at figures such as followers and watch time, Russian-language streamers such as Stray228, ybicanoooobov, and just_ns rank among the biggest Dota 2 streamers but their income doesn’t come close to reflecting that. For example, ybicanoooobov has about 80% of the viewership and following of AdmiralBulldog and a comparable amount of watchtime, but only has about 10% of the income at $58,227.81.
This is even more exaggerated when it comes to active Dota 2 pros. KheZu is one of the higher-earning Dota 2 esports pros, as is Brazilian player Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos, who made $49,228.04. Big names from regions outside the Americas and Europe that would be expected to be wildly successful on Twitch don’t even register, with Danil “Dendi” Ishutin and Mohammed “Attacker” Almheiri not even ranking within the top 10,000 streamers.
This general phenomenon can be seen in other esports as well.
Arteezy is among the highest-paid active pro players on Twitch
Artour “Arteezy” Babaev streams so infrequently that an appearance by him on Twitch is an event unto itself, but he still ranks among the highest-paid Dota 2 streamers on Twitch.
Despite not streaming at any point in 2021 and not streaming often prior to that, Arteezy still took in $67,486.52 during the two-year window that was leaked. While that’s not an overwhelming sum of cash, it’s significantly more than most Dota 2 pros that stream more regularly.
Of course, that doesn’t really touch the money he’s made from actually competing in Dota 2. Arteezy has made over $2.3 million in prize pool winnings, and that doesn’t count any salary he receives from Evil Geniuses.
Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.
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