Since the battle royale mode launched back in late 2017, Fortnite insanely transcended any expectations the developers could’ve had. The game reigned, not just e-sports, but pop culture for a good while. Take it as you may, negative or positive effect. Either ways, there is no denying how popular the game got.
As Fortnite grew more popular, it certainly paved the way for some of its players and streamers to grow immensely more popular as well. The red carpet was laid for the careers of players and streamers alike to shine more than ever. Some kickstarted their streaming career with Fortnite to later become icons of online streaming. The others kickstarted their career in e-sports.
And today, we are here to celebrate both. Less broadly, to talk about the best professional Fortnite players.
Between thousands of professional e-sports players, Diego ‘Arkhram’ Palma definitely ruled his domain. His career was permanently elevated when he got signed with the prominent e-sports team 100 Thieves. Since then, he has participated in about 54 Fortnite tournaments and earned a sum of $778,000, according to esportsearnings.com.
Diego gathered about 226,000 followers on Twitch and is expected to be growing over time. Last May, Arkhram joined EpikWhale in two tournaments, the Fortnite Champion Series and the Duos Cash Cup. They played a total of 8 games together over the month of May. Both managed to anchor the second position in one game and the third position in the other and won about $14,000.
Unfortunately for the Fortnite community, Arkhram decided to conclude his professional career with Fortnite. He retired from the contract with 100 Thieves and decided to shift his attention to VALORANT after finding it to be his new passion. Diego is to be recognized as one of the best Fortnite players, even if he was active for a short time.
Matthew is one of the players you will most definitely hear about from time to time if you’re an avid Fortnite player. Never have I thought I would write this sentence, but here we are. Matthew ‘Mero’ Faitel began his professional career in May of 2020 when the disbanded team of Outcast Region signed him. After three months of competing under their moniker, he left.
I can tell you that Matthew’s résumé is one hell of a long one, not the kind that will fit in a couple of paragraphs of a listicle. However, I can tell you that since he left, he’s been skimming through e-sports organizations. Dignitas is the current team that Mero is playing under. He’s been signed, actually, since May of 2022.
And it’s looking like he’s planning on having a long-term relationship with the team. His best professional year in tournaments was 2021; he earned a sum of $212,000 by the end of it from tournaments only, landing him a position in the top 50 list of the most earning Fortnite players of all time. He’s also well-known for collaborating with Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf.
Bugha became a name to remember in the Fortnite community around the time the 2019 World Cup was still running. Kyle Giersdorf managed to win the biggest tournament Fortnite has ever hosted. But this is not what prompted the media’s attention. He drew the attention of the media with the prize he earned for winning, which was a whopping $3 million.
Ever since his victory, he developed his career and identity into being the face of Fortnite e-sports. What was an internet phenomenon became the international talk of the week. Consequently, drawing more general attention to e-sports and gaming tournaments. The victory rendered him the highest-earning Fortnite player of all time and earned him quite the prestige among the community.
Kyle’s father introduced him to Fortnite in 2018 by mentioning the Save The World mode of the game. And he started his professional career in 2019. E-sports team Sentinels signed Bugha well before the world cup, March of 2019, to be exact. And he never really had a change of heart regarding the team, and it seems like he’s not planning to have any change of heart soon.
He’s one of the youngest on the list. Well, if not the youngest. Currently, Jannis ‘JannisZ’ Matwin is the 25th highest-earning professional Fortnite player out there, netting almost $664,000 in his professional career.
Apart from being one of the best Fortnite players ever, he’s also one of the biggest and most renowned streamers of the Fortnite community, with over 479,000 followers on Twitch.
Jannis began his professional career when he got signed with Wave Esports in July 2019. And after two years full of achievements, Jannis departed from the team in March 2021. He then advanced with his career after joining Guild Esports for about a year, from March 2021 to March 2022. Then he joined Wave Esports once again in March 2022, and he’s been playing for them ever since.
Most recently, on the 27th of November, he joined Vadeal (teammate in Wave Esports) in the DreamHack Winter tournament to land themselves the first position, ultimately making $17,000. Jannis is also known to be a frequent collaborator with Vadeal.
Next, we’re going to introduce to you the 4th highest-earning Fortnite player of all time. Shane ‘EpikWhale’ Cotton began his professional career after he signed with Team Kungarna shortly before the Fortnite 2019 World Cup. After playing multiple games under Team Kungarna’s name, Shane got signed with NRG Esports.
He eventually landed the third position in the World Cup and walked away with $1.2 million. The prize and prestige he earned after anchoring the third position in Fortnite 2019’s World Cup were immense enough to kickstart his career into renown. And need not remind you that he stood triumphant with his great skill, marking him one of the best Fortnite players ever.
Most recently, in June of 2022, TSM signed EpikWhale to join their Fortnite roster, marking one more achievement in his career with many more to come. He also climbed the first position in the recent Gamers8 tournament hosted in Saudi Arabia, netting around $178,000, which is his second biggest prize following the Fortnite 2019 World Cup.
With all of the preceding advancements in his résumé, he’s undoubtedly one of the best Fortnite players.
Moussa ‘Chapix’ Faour definitely had his own story of success. He began his career right after the Valhalla Vikings esports team signed him up in April 2019. He joined the Fortnite 2019 World Cup but finished in 22nd place in the Duo cup. Then he left the Valhalla Vikings to take a pause from his profession and presumed passion.
Moussa faced some hardships in deciding whether he wanted to stay in the Fortnite esports scene. He even considered the option of quitting. But then he came back. Falcons Esport.EU later wanted to include Chapix in their Fortnite roster, which came to reality in August of 2021.
He played under their moniker for another year before leaving his spot vacant in the team in September 2022. It’s absolutely worth mentioning that Chapix is the 20th highest-earning Fortnite player of all time, having earned almost $704,000. And since leaving Falcons Esport.EU, he’s been joining tournaments under his name with his frequent collaborator, TaySon.
With a player of Chapix’s skill and intelligence, the fate of him finding another team and advancing over time as one of the best Fortnite players is undoubtedly inevitable.
Currently, he is the 42nd highest-earning Fortnite player ever, and he’s the 5th highest-earning player in all of Germany. Alexander ‘Vadeal’ Schlik made about $421,000 throughout his career as a Fortnite athlete. His career began at the end of 2019, particularly in December when Paralogic eSports signed him up to join their Fortnite roster.
The groundbreaking point of his career would be when he got signed with Amorphous eSports in March 2020. Since then and until October 2020, he’s been jumping from team to team. Why October 2020, you ask? It’s when he joined the Fortnite roster of Wave Esports. From this point on, it was his ultimate chance to shine alongside his frequent collaborator, JannisZ.
Vadeal’s latest professional activity was his participation in the DreamHack Winter solo tournament. He managed to anchor in the fourth position. If this is a testament to anything, it’s to the skill that he managed to acquire and preserve, even if he was somewhat new to the Fortnite esports scene. Therefore it’s easy to assume that Vadeal would make it into this list.
Tai ‘TaySon’ Starčič kickstarted his professional career when he was signed up with Team FRAG to join their roster in March 2019. He stayed with Team FRAG for about 7-8 months before departing in October 2019. He briefly joined 300 Spartans before leaving them in the same month.
After that, Tai went in and out of many esports teams before landing his position in Falcons Esport.EU in July 2021. Additionally, he netted about $894,000, hence being the 14th highest-earning Fortnite player up until this moment. Tai also earned $211,000 in 2022 alone, marking one of the finest years in his career.
Very recently, specifically on the 1st of December, TaySon landed the first position in the Elite Cup Weekly Finals organized by Epic Games, and doing so earned Falcons Esport.EU about $10,000 of the prize pool. It’s worth mentioning that TaySon is a frequent collaborator with Chapix.
With TaySon’s busy résumé and long achievement list, it’s no wonder why he would be one of the best Fortnite players of all time.
Henrik ‘Hen’ Mclean kickstarted his own professional career when he was signed up with Become Legends back in August 2019. Having stayed with them for about more than a year, he wanted to move on with his career and left Become Legends. Only to be signed a month later, in December 2020 approximately, to join Guild Esports’ roster, and he has since played with them.
Hen is also the 22nd highest-earning Fortnite player of all time and the third highest-earning gaming athlete in the United Kingdom. Henrik earned roughly $676,000 in the grand scheme of e-sporting and $234,000 in 2022 sole. His overall peak was in 2021 when he won first place in the FNCS of the same year and walked out with the $200,000 reward.
It’s integral to this list to mention that Hen reached the first position in three straight Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS), which doesn’t only make him a successful Fortnite player, but in fact, one of the all-time best. The game had just started. And there is more time for Hen to dominate more fields alongside the competitive field.
He commenced his professional career in April 2019 after joining Absent eSports’ Fortnite roster for over one month. Brodie ‘Rehx’ Franks is one of the most popular players out there in the Fortnite community. However, after playing under their moniker for a little while, Rehx decided to leave, probably pursuing higher ends.
We know that he played solo for quite some time, entering tournaments under his own name and teaming up with EpikWhale from time to time. But little did we know that a 100 Thieves deal to sign up Rehx was even on the table. He’s definitely skilled and talented enough for it.
Either way, the renowned esports team felt the joy to announce that Brodie would be joining them as of February 2020. Additionally, Brodie is the 94th highest-earning Fortnite player, amassing over $222,000 throughout his career, and undoubtedly much more to come. His most recent activity was his participation in May’s FNCS, in which he landed the second position.
Rehx certainly secured his place in the top ten list by the sheer amount of skill and intelligence in competing against high-profile competitors. There’s no doubt that he would be able to do it again. Successfully so, he rendered himself one of the best among the best.
Conclusion
With the esports industry transcending beyond its limits year after the other, there’s no telling what’s next for its athletes and players. It’s absolutely not a bad thing; it’s an unforeseen form of good. 2023 seems to have kinder plans for esports than the preceding years.
Either way, I cannot just tell you how eager I am to see how esports grow over the subsequent couple of years. Have any thoughts to share about this? Feel free to drop it down in the comments. Tell us what players you would rank differently or what players you think are terribly underrated. We’re always keen to reading your opinions.
