Top 41 Esports Influencers You Should Know

The gaming industry is growing by leaps and bounds every day. If you always thought that video games were children’s play, think again. Worldwide, there are video game competitions held every year involving big sponsors and incredible prize money. This industry is known as electronic sports or esports. 

The global esports industry had an estimated market size of $1.1 billion in 2021. And it is expected to grow another 45% by 2024. Games like League of Legends and Overwatch are expected to have massive growth in their direct revenues. This growth is mostly going to be from ticket sales, merchandise sales, brand associations, and advertisements. 

The growth and popularity of the esports industry have increased the popularity of esports influencers as well. Because of their expertise and success in the gaming industry, these influencers have huge numbers of followers on social media. 

While Twitter seems to be the most popular social media platform for them, Twitch is where their gaming action is. In this article, and ranked in no particular order, we’ll take a look at the top 41 esports influencers you should know about in 2021.

Top 41 Esports Influencers You Should Know:

#1. Peter Dager

Peter Dager, popularly known as ppd, is a professional Dota 2 player and a popular esports influencer. He was also the CEO of Evil Geniuses at one time. 

He has over 162K followers on Twitter and 36K followers on Instagram. 

#2. Rick Fox

Rick Fox, also known as Ulrich Alexander Fox, is an extremely popular esports influencer. The Canadian-Bahamian businessman is not only an actor in films and television but also a retired basketball player. 

He has played in the NBA for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. He also used to play college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels. 

He is the owner of Echo Fox, a premier esports franchise. Apart from this, he’s also a partner at Vision Venture Partners, a private equity firm that’s now moving into professional esports. He also provides strategic guidance and other support to Vision Venture Partners’ portfolio companies too. 

He has more than 273K followers on Twitter and over 147K followers on Instagram

#3.  Matthew Piper

Matthew Piper, popularly known as FormaL, is a popular esports influencer. He currently plays for Optic Gaming and is a Call of Duty Champion. He earned £212,000 for winning the Call of Duty championship in 2017. He has more than 76K active followers on Instagram.

#4. Revitalize

Revitalize is an extremely popular Twitter sensation and esports influencer from Australia. He has about 33K followers on Twitter and has an impressive esports portfolio. He is an editor and has worked on multiple projects for OpTic. 

Apart from that, he has created innumerable montages for many other players. He has more than 23K subscribers on his YouTube channel and has also directed a movie called “Clayster.”

Source: twitter.com

#5. Artour Babaev

Artour Babaev better known as Arteezy is a professional Dota 2 player from Canada. He plays for Evil Geniuses. He is extremely popular on Instagram, where he has more than 219K followers. He also has over 654K followers on Twitter.

#6. Harrison Chang

Harrison Chang, also known as psalm, is an American Fortnite player. He has earned over $1.9 million in 2019 from just 39 tournaments. Apart from Fortnite, he also plays Heroes of the Storm and has 76K followers on Twitter.

Source: twitter.com

#7.  Saahil Arora

Saahil Arora, popularly known as UNiVeRsE, is an esports influencer and a professional Dota 2 player from the US. Saahil’s combined earnings of $3M make him one of the highest-earning esports players. 

He has more than 155K followers on Twitter, and over 19K followers on Instagram.

#8. Darren Rovell

Darren Rovell is a sports business analyst and a reporter on ESPN Sports. He is also a very popular esports influencer and has over 2 million followers on Twitter. 

He graduated from Northwestern University and is a member of their advisory board for sports administration. He has also won an Emmy award for his 2008 Election coverage on NBC. 

He has more than 49K followers on Instagram.

#9.  Lasse Aukusti Urpalainen

Lasse Aukusti Urpalainen, better known as MATUMBAMAN, is a professional Dota 2 player from Finland. He currently plays for TeamLiquid. His total earnings at 2021are $3.7M from 79 tournaments.

He has almost 113K followers on Twitter and 48K followers on Instagram.

#10. Manny Anekal

Manny Anekal is a popular esports influencer. He owns multiple companies in the esports space and has more than ten years of experience in gaming and marketing. 

He started with Massive Inc., which was later acquired by Microsoft Xbox. He then worked in a bunch of roles in companies like Zynga, Electronic Arts, Kiip, and Major League Gaming. 

He has more than 6,544 followers on Twitter. 

Source: twitter.com

#11. Clinton Loomis

Clinton Loomis, popularly known as Fear, is a professional Dota 2 player from the US. He is one of the oldest Dota players. 

Fear is also regarded as the best North American Dota 2 player in the last decade. His total earnings from101 tournaments are $2.56M. He is the former captain and co-owner of Evil Geniuses. 

He has over 175K Twitter followers and more than 45K followers on Instagram.

#12. Jacob Wolf

Jacob Wolf is an American esports journalist at ESPN and a popular esports influencer. He lives in Bristol, Connecticut. He is also the co-host of the ESPN esports podcast. 

Before being associated with ESPN, he used to work for Daily Dot as a staff writer. He also used to contribute to Esports Heaven and Score Esports. 

He is regarded as one of the best investigative journalists in esports. He is well known across Super Smash Bros, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and League of Legends. 

He has more than 86K followers on Twitter.

Source: twitter.com

#13. KezBrown

KezBrown, also known as Kieran Brown, is a popular FIFA player and an esports influencer from Manchester City. 

He has 20.7K subscribers on his YouTube channel, and over 6.5K followers on Twitter.

Source: twitter.com

#14. KuroKy

Salehi Takhasomi, or KuroKy, is a popular esports influencer and a Dota 2 professional from Berlin. He was earlier part of TeamLiquid but has recently joined the team, Nigma. His total earnings are $5.2million, making him one of the highest-earning esports professionals. 

He has more than 248K followers on his Twitter account.

Source: twitter.com

#15. Duncan Shields

Duncan Shields, popularly known as Thorin, is an esports journalist from the United Kingdom. He is a popular esports influencer, and is known as “The Esports historian.” He specializes in Quake, Counter-Strike, League Of Legends, Overwatch, and StarCraft. 

Duncan writes exclusively for DOT esports. He shares his perspective on esports in a video series called “Thorin's Thoughts.” His YouTube channel has over 264K subscribers. He is also the host of “OverSight” and “Counter-Points.” 

He has over 232K followers on his Twitter account.

Source: twitter.com

#16.  Clement Ivanov

Clement Ivanov, better known as Puppey, is an Estonian professional Dota 2 player. Puppey has over 238K followers on Twitter and more than 63K followers on Instagram.

#17. Mike Rufail

Mike Rufail is a popular esports influencer based in Dallas, Texas. He is the owner of esports teams TeamEnVyUs and DallasFuel, and the owner and CEO of Envy Gaming, Inc. 

He has more than 154K followers on Twitter.

Source: twitter.com

#18. Johan Sundstein

Johan Sundstein, popularly known as N0tail, is a Danish professional Dota 2 player. He is part of esports team OG. 

Johan has over 281K followers on Twitter, and over 273K followers on Instagram.

#19. Travis Gafford

Travis Gafford is an esports veteran and influencer from California. He is a reporter and independent content creator. He covers gaming events and also produces videos on his YouTube channel, which has 207K subscribers.

He also has over 162K followers on Twitter, and over 22K followers on Instagram.

#20. Resolut1on

Roman Fominok, also known as Resolut1on, is a Ukrainian professional Dota 2 player. He belongs to esports team RedBull OG. 

He has more than 118K Twitter followers and more than 111K followers on Instagram.

#21. Jesse Vainikka

He is a popular Finnish Dota 2 player with 150.7k followers on Twitter and 110k on Instagram. So far, he has earned $6.4 million from 65 different esports tournaments.

He plays for the team, OG that has consecutively won two The International: Dota 2 Championships, for 2018 and 2019. He is often seen promoting his sponsor brand, Red Bull, in his social media posts.

#22. Sébastien Debs

He is a French Dota 2 player who is also on team OG, which won two The International championships. This makes him one of the most popular esports influencers.

He has 146k followers on Instagram and a total earning of $5.5 million from 63 tournaments. He also promotes his team’s sponsor brand, Red Bull, on Instagram.

#23. Topias Taavitsainen

He is a Finnish Dota 2 player who also plays for the team OG. He has 102k followers on Twitter and 118K on Instagram.  He has his own website and blog as well.

Source: twitter.com

#24. Xu Linsen

Xu is a Chinese Dota 2 player who is a member of the team, LGD Gaming. His team came third in The International 2019, Dota 2 championship.

#25. Roman Kushnarev

He is a Russian Dota 2 player, who used to play for the team Virtus.pro, but joined Evil Geniuses in 2019. He has 199k followers on Instagram and has a total earning of $1.78 million.

Source: instagram.com

#26. Gabriel Toledo

He is a popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player from Brazil. He also owns the eSports company, Games Academy.  His total earnings from 130 CS tournaments are $1.1 million.

He is massively popular on social media with 1.1M followers on Twitter, 959k on Instagram, and 1.32M on YouTube. This makes him one of the top esports influencers. Owing to his popularity, he gets numerous brand collaborations.

#27. Turner Tenney

He is an American Twitch streamer and Fortnite player with cumulative earnings of $6M from 68 different tournaments.

He streams his gaming performances on YouTube as well and has a subscriber base of 12M. He has 4.2M followers on Twitter and 4.9M on Instagram. This makes him one of the most popular esports influencers in the world.

Source: youtube.com

#28. Sasha Hostyn

Most lists for esports influencers are almost exclusively filled with male players. So, we thought we should include the top female players as well.

Sasha is a Canadian StarCraft II player, who is popularly known as Scarlett. She has 39.6k followers on Twitter and gets millions of views on her Twitch streams. She is also the highest-earning female esports player with a total earning of $401K.

Source: twitter.com

#29. Anathan Pham

He is one of the highest-earning esports players with a total earning of $6 million from 24 tournaments. He is an Australian Dota 2 Player who plays for the team OG.

He has 100K followers on Twitter and 37K on Instagram.

Source: twitter.com

#30. Amer Al-Barkawi

He is a Dota 2 player from Jordan who has earned $4.8M from 70 tournaments. He is popularly known as Miracle and though he is not very active on social media, he has a huge fan base.  He has 23K followers on Instagram.

#31. Ivan Ivanov

He is a Bulgarian Dota 2 player with cumulative earnings of $4.6 million from 79 tournaments. He plays for the team Nigma, which was formed by 7 of the most popular Dota 2 champions.

He is also active on Twitter, where he has over 76K followers.

Source: twitter.com

#32. Maroun Merhej

He is one of the seven top Dota 2 players who recently formed the team, Nigma. He is from Lebanon and, so far, has earned $4.2 million from 58 tournaments.

He has 87K followers on Twitter and is a popular esports influencer. He is also active on Instagram, where he has 62.5K followers.

Source: twitter.com

#33. Sumail Hassan

He is a Pakistani Dota 2 player who currently plays for OG, but was earlier a member of Evil Geniuses. His total earnings are $3.6 million from 73 tournaments. He is active on Twitter, with a follower count of 237K. Just like other members of the team, he also promotes the Red Bull brand that sponsors the team.

Source: twitter.com

#34. Kyle Giersdorf

He is an American Fortnite player with total earnings of $3.1 million from 48 tournaments. When it comes to top esports influencers, the list is usually dominated by Dota 2 players. 

Kyle is one of the most popular Fortnite players who can compete with the Dota 2 players both in terms of earnings and popularity. He has a massive Twitter following of 803K. That’s not all. He has a whopping 3 million followers on Instagram as well.

Source: twitter.com

#35. Lu Yao

He is a Chinese Dota 2 player with the highest cumulative earnings of an esports player in his country. He has total earnings of $3 million from 74 tournaments. He is popular among his fans by the nickname Maybe and plays for the team PSG.LGD.

#36. Gustav Magnusson

He is a popular Swedish Dota 2 player, who earlier used to play Heroes of Newerth and also plays Counter-Strike: Global Offensive sometimes. His cumulative earnings from 133 tournaments are $2.57 million.

He is popularly known as s4 and is a member of the team called Alliance. He has been a part of other prestigious teams like OG and Evil Geniuses in the past.

He has a huge Twitter following of over 178K. He also has over 47K followers on Instagram.

Source: twitter.com

#37. Ludwig Wåhlberg

He is another popular Dota 2 player from Sweden, with cumulative earnings of $2.5 million from 105 esports tournaments. He is popular by the name ZAI and is a member of the Team Secret.

Though he has not won many championships, he is still quite popular and has a follower base of 138K on Twitter.

Source: twitter.com

#38. Tal Aizik

Tal is probably the only esports player from Israel who has made it to this list of top esports influencers. With total earnings of $2.45million from 122 tournaments, he definitely deserves to be here. He is also the captain of the team, Evil Geniuses.

He is a Dota 2 player who is popular by the nickname Fly. Since joining Twitter in December 2019 he has gained a following of 66K. He has over 66K followers on Instagram and he is often seen promoting brands on his channel.   

#39. Andreas Højsleth

He is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player from Denmark and is popularly known by his alias, Xyp9x. 

He plays for the team Astralis and has won several tournaments for the game. These include Intel Grand Slam Season 1 in 2018, ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, and more.

He is also quite popular on social media with over 249K followers on Twitter and 129K on Instagram.

#40. Peter Rasmussen

He is a Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player with total earnings of $1.9 million from 159 tournaments. He is also a part of the team, Astralis, which has won several major CS championships.

He has 276K followers on Twitter and 152K followers on Instagram, making him a popular esports influencer.

#41. HIRO

H I R O is a popular esports influencer and gamer from Barcelona, Spain. He has over 16,600 followers on his Twitter account, and appears regularly on Twitch TV with live gaming action.

He also has more than 1.7K followers on YouTube.

Source: youtube.com

Conclusion

These are some of the most popular esports influencers that you can collaborate with to reach gaming enthusiasts. Some of them are gamers while others are involved in the esports community in other ways. Regardless, they all have substantial influence on their audiences.

So, the next time you are looking for influencers in the gaming or esports industry, check out this list first.

About the Author

Werner Geyser

Writer

With over 15 years in content marketing, Werner founded Influencer Marketing Hub in 2016. He successfully grew the platform to attract 5 million monthly visitors, making it a key site for brand marketers globally. His efforts led to the company's acquisition in 2020. Additionally, Werner's expertise has been recognized by major marketing and tech publications, including Forbes, TechCrunch, BBC and Wired.