His continued excellence has attracted comparisons with sport stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, although he actually has links to the other famous footballing Ronaldo who led Brazil to World Cup glory in 2002.Īccordingly, Lee has a legion of fans around the world with over half a million followers on Instagram and 300,000 on Twitter, while 1.7 million YouTube channel subscribers provide him with another lucrative source of income.Īs yet, there are no plans to include eSports as medal events at the Olympic Games.
in prize money since turning professional in 2013.Ĭombine that with the revenue from his various endorsement deals, merchandising fees, and his annual salary falls just shy of $5 million per year, more than the average of an English Premier League footballer.
Lee is one of only two players to have won the LoL World Championship three times, and has amassed well over $1 million U.S. The 24-year-old Korean is arguably the greatest player of the world's most popular competitive online video game League of Legends (or LoL for short).
His gaming alias may be 'Faker', but when it comes to eSports - or competitive online video games - Lee Sang-hyeok is the real deal.