Recently, an Esports account on Twitter published a list of the top 10 highest-earning teams in League of Legends history. At the top is T1 with an impressive total of 7.2 million USD, and the gap between the former LCK champion and the second place is as much as 2.9 million USD.
But perhaps the biggest surprise is the team ranked just behind T1. The name mentioned here is Samsung. The team that once ruled the LCK and the global League of Legends scene is right behind its fierce rival with a total earnings of 4.3 million USD.
What’s interesting is that the Samsung Galaxy League of Legends team has not been active in the game for a long time (since 2017), and over the past four years, no team has surpassed this former giant in the Esports scene in general and League of Legends in particular.
The teams that follow in order are Invictus Gaming (4.2 million USD and the closest name that could potentially take Samsung’s second place), Royal Never Give Up (3.2 million USD), Fnatic (2.9 million USD), EDward Gaming (2.7 million USD), G2 Esports (2.5 million USD), Cloud9 (2 million USD), Team WE (1.8 million USD), and finally Team SoloMid (1.7 million USD).
This ranking is missing many big names from the current scene such as DWG KIA, FunPlus Phoenix, Suning… but these absences are not surprising as these teams have only recently emerged. Additionally, among the top 4 teams still existing today, except for RNG, all have won the World Championship at least once: Fnatic (Worlds 2011), IG (2018), and SKT T1 (2013, 2015, 2016). Samsung Galaxy has also won under the names Samsung Galaxy White (2014) and Samsung Galaxy (2017).