Hearthstone players won more than $2 million in 2015

After a huge year for Hearthstone, we’ve totalled up the prize money—and it has surpassed a whopping $2 million.

Across 99 events that awarded a prize of $1,000 or more, 319 players won prizes totaling $2,145,586, according to data reported on Liquipedia and compiled by the Daily Dot. With 46 more events and 55 more players winning prizes, that’s around $800,000 more last year in total .

For the second year in a row, James “Firebat” Kostesich heads the list of prize money winners. This year he won $109,225, $4000 more than last year. World Cyber Arena winner and unknown Korean “DawN” finishes second, almost entirely thanks to that tournament win.

Also at the head of the list is 2015 Hearthstone world champion Na`Vi‘s Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall, who won a total of $107,900, finished third. Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy also broke six figures earning $101,250 and six individual event titles.

Of 2014’s top 20 winners list, only five players remain, including Kostesich, runner-up Wang “TiddlerCelestial” Xieyu and ultra-consistent Cloud9 ace Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh. Malsh won the most events in 2015, taking home eight individual titles. 

All three players for G2 Esports (Koy, Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk and Dima “Rdu” Radu” appear in the top five, mostly as a result of winning $50,000 in the Archon Team League Championships. All of Natus Vincere’s three players appear in the top 20, along with three players from Cloud9 and two from Archon.

Breaking into the top 20 was far harder in 2015. Last year, $10,000 in winnings was enough to break that top group. But in 2015, the 20th-place prize money winner, Jan “Ekop” Palys, won $23,712.

There were 182 players who won prizes in 2014 but failed to do so in 2015, including 2014 World Championship semi-finalist Daniel “DTwo” Ikuta and popular personalities like Octavian “Kripparrian” Morosan and Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski.

Hearthstone prize money earners:

1. James “Firebat” Kostesich ($109,225)
2. “DawN” ($108,266)
3. Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall ($107,900)
4. Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy ($101,250)
5. Thijs Molendijk ($86,525)
6. Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh ($83,525)
7. Dima “Rdu” Radu ($68,250)
8. Dylan “Hotform” Mullins ($55,000)
9. David “Dog” Caero ($40,250)
10. Li “Sword” Heyang ($39,806)
11. Zhang “lovelychook” Bohan ($37,567)
12. Jeffrey “Trump” Shih ($36,175)
13. Cong “StrifeCro” Shu ($34,650)
14. “Aaron” ($34,492)
15. Jon “Orange” Westberg ($33,872)
16. Frederik “Hoej” Nielsen ($27,000)
17. Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert ($26,800)
18. Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin ($26,450)
19. Wang “TiddlerCelestial” Xieyu ($25,328)
20. Jan “Ekop” Palys ($23,712)

You can see the full set of data here. All conversions to USD were taken from Liquipedia at the time of entry.

Correction 12:00pm Dec. 31:  The World Cyber Arena tournament totals have been added to this data set. We regret the oversight.

Photo by Sarah Corriher/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed