Ukrainian CSGO Pro and Natus Vincere’s star AWPer, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is undoubtedly one of the greatest players to ever touch the game, maybe even the best to ever do it.
His incredible skill and consistency took NaVi to new heights ever since he joined the prestigious org, and in 2021 a whole new chapter was written, one for the history books.
NaVi had their most successful year as an organisation as they won almost every S tier tournament in the second half the year and had a couple of #1 finishes at the start of the year as well.
In their quest to become the best, NaVi also set new records as a team as they won the highest amount of prize money in a single calendar year in CSGO.
NaVi earned $4,275,500 in 2021, surpassing Danish side Astralis who earned $3,600,000 in 2018. NaVi earned $1 million from the PGL Stockholm Major, and another 1 million USD by winning the Intel Grand Slam
In the process, s1mple leapfrogged many legendary players to become one of the highest earners in CSGO, from match winnings alone, as per esportsearnings.com.
And now, with NaVi’s quarter final exit at ESL Pro League Season 15, s1mple surpassed Emi ‘Magisk’ Reif to become the 5th highest earning CSGO Pro. interestinlgy due to the year NaVi had, 18 year old rifler Valery ‘B1T’ Vakhovskyi surpassed legends like Zeus and f0rest in terms of prize money earned.
The top 5, until now was composed of the Danish quintet of Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Emil “Magisk” Reif. Their 4 major wins (3 for Magisk) had a big role to play in their winnings as CSGO Majors are always the most prestigious events.
s1mple’s addition has now changed things up, displacing Magisk as the 5th and becoming the only non-Danish player in the top 5. As things stand, the top 10 highest earning CSGO Pros are:
CSGO Pro Earnings:
- Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen – $1,950,081.07 USD
- Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth – $1,938,480.23 USD
- Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz – $1,921,931.54 USD
- Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander – $1,790,642.41 USD
- Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev – $1,544,821.98 USD
- Emil “Magisk” Reif – $1,543,540.30 USD
- Denis “electronic” Sharipov – $1,398,558.66 USD
- Jakey “Stewie2k” Yip – $1,186,173.20 USD
- Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo – $1,138,636.54 USD
- Finn “karrigan” Andersen – $1,119,302.06 USD
