Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, today announced the top mobile eSports athletes of 2018. The top 10 competitors won more than $8 million in combined prizes, with 7 of the 10 rankings claimed by women. The prizes earned by this year’s winners were three times larger than that earned by 2017’s top players.
“When I first started competing on the Skillz platform, I never realized this was something I could do professionally,” says Jennifer Park (jpark87), a college engineering student from Westland, Michigan. “The prizes I’ve earned from playing Skillz games have helped put me through college.”
The mobile gaming industry is projected to grow into a $70 billion market in 2019, accounting for over half of the $138 billion gaming space. As the industry’s revenue has increased, competitive gaming prize pools have also grown in tandem. Prizes from eSports tournaments such as the “Dota 2” International topped $25 million last year, now exceeding those of prestigious offline sports events such as the Indy 500 and the Masters.
According to eSportsEarnings.com, global eSports prize pools grew 31.5% from 2017 to 2018. In comparison, the top 10 Skillz competitors generated over a 300% year over year increase in prizes won, with the top player ranking #6 on the list of highest-earning 2018 athletes across the global eSports industry.
“Top mobile eSports athletes bring the same inspiring dedication you see in world-class NBA or MLB players to our increasingly digital world,” says Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz. “Similar to how radio and television revolutionized the future of sports, Skillz is using mobile technology to do the same for eSports.”
Skillz was recently recognized for disrupting the technology industry and shaping the future of eSports, being named to both the 2018 Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list as well as the 2018 Entrepreneur 360 list. The company also reported doubling its revenue run-rate twice in 2018 to a current total of over $400 million.
The top Skillz competitors are ranked based upon total tournament prizes won by each player, excluding any entry fees paid to enter those tournaments.
