How Old Are Pro Gamers? Oldest | Average | Youngest (2023)

This post looks at the top 100 pro gamers’ age and analyzes at what age an esport career is at its zenith. When do pro gamers make the most money from esports?

The average age of pro gamers in Esport is 25.7 years, measured among the top 100 players in terms of career income in 2020, with a maximum age of 31 years. The youngest pro gamer is 16 years old.

Are you wondering if you are too young or already too old for an esport career as a pro gamer?

At the statistical margins, of course, there are extreme outliers such as Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, the now 17-year-old Fornite player who won the highest prize money in the solo event in 2019 and won about 3 million US dollars in prize money. 2018 was his first year as a professional, and with a total of 1,250 US Dollars not necessarily worth mentioning. In 2020, with 86,000 US-Dollars, he did not even reach a fraction of 2019.

Ultimately, we must, therefore, always look at the average and not at these extreme cases.

Note: This article was written in English. Translations into other languages may not provide the same linguistic quality. We apologize for grammatical and semantic errors.

Who is the Oldest Professional Gamer?

To have the first reference, let’s answer this question upfront.

The Japanese Pro Gamer Naoto “Sakonoko” Sako took 3rd place in the Evolution Championship Series 2020 at 40 years of age. He is currently under contract with the Japanese esport organization FAV gaming. There are still much older competitive players, but they do not play professionally.

What Is the Average Age of the TOP 10 Pro Gamers?

Let’s take out three of the most famous titles of esport and look at the top 10 in each case.

In Dota 2, a pro gamer with an average age of 22.9 years earned the most money.

At CSGO, a pro gamer with an average age of 22.7 years has earned the most money so far.

And in the top 10 at Fortnite, a pro gamer with an average age of 17.75 years has earned the most money so far.

Wow, that’s young.

The age difference between the genres of Dota 2 as MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and CSGO or Fornite as FPS (First-Person-Shooter) is straightforward to explain. Dota 2 is rather perceived as a chess game. Tactics, strategy, and long-term action are in the foreground, thus appealing to an audience from 18 years and older. The players need a certain foresight and patience to be successful.

CSGO and Fornite are First Person Shooters (FPS) with entertaining concentrated action but differ clearly in the target groups. CSGO addresses an audience again starting from 18 years, while the squeaky Fortnite has players rather than under 18 years in view.

With the esport, there is thus, depending upon play, a specific age span under pro gamers. More exactly would have to be examined whether and how much the age is affected by the public’s average age.

Esport is a tough business, where the same mechanisms take place as in classical sports. Teams are competing in esport need sponsors to pay their players. Sponsors are oriented to the target group of the game.

Fortnite tends to play under 18-year-old players. This age group must be able to identify with the Esport players to support the Esport team.

The Esport team tries to get as young professionals as possible to get more fans and sponsors.

The trend towards younger gamers is ultimately an economic pressure and, at the same time, reflects the media target group.

The same economic and social processes are at work in Dota 2. The audience is older and can identify better with professional players of the same age. The sponsorship landscape at Dota 2 may look completely different than at games with a younger audience.

Also, here one would like to see in the end players in the team, which come optically and from the age close to the spectators, to have a reasonable marketing basis.

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At What Age Do Pro Gamers End their Career?

General statistics say that the average pro gamer ends his career at the age of 25. If you compare this with classic sports or normal professional life, this is an incredibly young age.

Who quits their job at 25?

If we look at the top 100, it is noticeable that many, many, many professionals continue to play successfully even after this average number.

Ultimately, it will also have to do with phases of life and the social structure around the mid-twenties that the players will ask themselves at the age of 25: “Will I stay with the sport in which I can keep up halfway for another five years, or will I take care of my education and create a secure professional basis for myself?

Esport is not yet an established sports culture. Esport reminds in parts more of the Wild West. It is understandable that many players wish for a predictable life and therefore stop playing pro games.

Who Is the Oldest Pro Gamer in the Top 100?

The title of the oldest professional in the Top 100 is shared directly by four Dota 2 players. The three Chinese and one US-American are all 31 years old.

Based on the results, these players have either already passed the zenith of their career or, as in one case, their career has already ended.

Only the Chinese Lu “Fenrir” Chao’s profits have remained relatively constant in recent years. But his best time is clearly behind him.

Who Is the Youngest Pro Gamer of the Top 100?

The youngest professional is Jaden “Wolfiez” Ashman from Great Britain. He plays the game Fortnite, which is very popular among younger gamers.

At the age of just 16, he has already earned over 1 million Dollars from gaming. He even won the lion’s share of this sum at the age of 15, when he was still under contract with the team “Lazarus.” Together with his duo partner, he finished second in the Fortnite World Championship 2019.

Jaden certainly still has a great sporting career ahead of him.

Final Thoughts

It is also always interesting to see how age affects gamers’ reaction speed.

Here we looked at the speed of reaction in old age:

If you have a question about the post or pro gaming in general, write us: contact@raiseyourskillz.com.

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GL & HF! Flashback out.