Playing video games for a living, having your name featured in gaming publications, MTV, thousands of websites, having fans and groupies sounds like the dream job. Here’s a list of video gaming over-achievers that succeeded in this industry and are making serious money too.
No list of most accomplished world class gamers should ignore Dennis Fong, the Ferrari Tournament guy. His claim to fame is winning the famed Red Annihilation tournament in 1997 and subsequently John Carmack’s Ferrari 328 which became solid evidence that there’s a future in this to all non-believers back in the early days of professional gaming competitions. The 32 year old Hong Kong born gaming celebrity Fong has been hailed as the Michael Jordan of video games receiving numerous awards and mentions in mainstream media. He played his game right and he invested the approximately $100.000 he’s made as a professional gamer into online media and social platforms and today he is regarded as the most financially fulfilled player-turned-businessman in the competitive gaming scene.
Games he’s most famous for: Doom I and II, Quake I, II and III and StarCraft
Thresh in figures:
102 million – The amount of US Dollars Dennis Fong’s Xfire, an instant messenger and social networking site for gamers was sold to Viacom for;
14 – The number of games Thresh won out of a total of 15 in the final against Entropy for the Ferrari Tournament. In fact, the one game he lost was the only official FPS round he’s ever lost;
32 – Dennis Fong’s current age that makes him the oldest professional gamer on this list.
