Indian-origin Saahil 'UNiVeRsE' Arora highest earning gamer in the world

Saahil Arora

Can no work and a lot of computer games make you a rich man? For Indian-origin gamer Saahil Arora this has turned out to be true.

According to esportsearning.com data compiled by Statista, an Indian-origin boy named Saahil Arora is the highest earning gamer in the world. The 27-year-old lad from Wisconsin who dropped out of the University of Wisconsin to pursue a career in professional gaming has earned USD 2.8 million from 67 tournaments that he has played — averaging USD 42,000 per tournament.

Saahil who is more popular by his pseudonym UNiVeRsE, currently plays for the team Evil Geniuses. He is followed by his teammates Peter Dager with USD 2.6 million and 18-year-old Sumail Hassan who hails from Karachi in Pakistan with USD 2.51 million.

Also Read: With mobile games going mainstream, gaming industry grows to $91 bn in 2016

The top ten highest earning gamers comprise of five players from China, three from the USA, one from Pakistan and one from Canada.

Many players from the above chart are currently playing in the 2017 edition of The International—a Dota 2 tournament—being held from August 7 to August 12.

It is not just cricket or football which churns money for the players, but with changing times, computer games, collectively known as eSports, are also spinning money.

This year, the total prize pool at The International is a whopping USD 24,051,553. The winning team will be taking home USD 10,538,683 which is more than the total prize money distributed ($10,225,000) in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Last year, the total prize money was USD 21 million and the winning team took USD 9 million with them.