You know their names! You’ve seen the aces, the clutches, the edits! You’ve spammed the chat when they popped off! But in 2025, the game’s changed! It’s not just about highlights and HLTV #1s — it’s about who turned their legacy into a paycheck.
s1mple, the god of CS:GO, playing with legacy pressure and business freedom. And ZywOo, the French phenomenon, finally hitting that GOD-tier stride and turning consistency into cold, hard cash. We’re not here to count headshots — we’re counting contracts, prize pools, streams, side deals, and all the zeroes behind them.
From org’s salaries to Twitch numbers, from MVPs to marketing — we break it all down. Block by block. So… who won the year where money talked louder than memes? Let’s go in!
Stats or Stacks: Who’s Really Winning in 2025?
Forget highlights, AIM, and clutches. In 2025, the score wasn’t just about kills — it was about dollars. While fans argued over who carried the latest Major, behind the scenes of esports, a different kind of scoreboard was being tracked — contracts, prize money, and payouts. s1mple and ZywOo — two giants, two different career paths, but one question — who really cashed out this season?
Let’s start with ZywOo. 2025 became a benchmark of consistency for him. Vitality had an almost flawless season: gold at IEM Katowice, gold in Melbourne, gold at BLAST, strong performances in the Pro League, and a bunch of steady playoff appearances. This wasn’t just results — it was a direct path to cash.
According to Liquipedia, the team earned around $1.5 million in prize money that year. With the standard prize distribution (20–25% to players), ZywOo, as the roster’s star, took home roughly $250,000 to $350,000 from tournament wins alone.
In early 2025, Vitality officially renewed his contract — not for a year, but with a long-term leadership plan. According to KRL, ZywOo’s new salary sits between €83,000 and €100,000 per month. That means just his base salary, excluding bonuses, brought him nearly a million dollars for the year.
With additional bonuses for Majors and top tournaments, his final paycheck was likely even fatter. Not every orgs pay this generously, but Vitality is a top-tier team, and investing in ZywOo is their smart bet.
Now, s1mple. In 2025, he was more of a symbol for NAVI than a full-time competitor. Rumors have it that his contract, signed back in 2022, kept his salary around $50,000 per month, totaling about $600,000 annually.
Prize money? Much quieter. After the Major trophy in Copenhagen, NAVI didn’t shine as brightly in 2025. According to Esportsearnings, s1mple earned only about $2,500 in prize money that year.
The difference is clear: one had a workhorse season, the other leaned into a “brand” season. ZywOo worked like a machine — not just competing, but playing loud, consistent, and effectively, which directly boosted his earnings. Meanwhile, s1mple took a step back — fewer matches, less pressure, and naturally, less money.
But this doesn’t mean s1mple lost. They just took different approaches. ZywOo is in his prime, squeezing every drop on the server. s1mple is moving toward media, flexibility, and possibly bigger things down the road. But if we’re looking only at 2025, cold and hard numbers tell one story — ZywOo landed the headshot on the bank account.
S1mple’s Legacy vs ZywOo’s Prime: Timing is Everything
Here’s the subtlety of this legendary rivalry, s1mple is a name that became a brand. ZywOo is a name that became a symbol of current dominance. Both are super talents, but they peaked at different times — and that timing is the key to their earnings and career paths in 2025.
s1mple played like a beast from 2018 to 2021. He snagged HLTV #1 rankings in 2018 and 2021 with almost no competition. 2021 was his crowning year: NAVI won the Intel Grand Slam, PGL Major Stockholm, and a bunch of other tournaments. At that point, the s1mple brand became bigger than just a player — streams, custom mice and mousepads, involvement in gaming merch design.
ZywOo, on the other hand, grew steadily. He first claimed HLTV #1 in 2019 and since then has been almost permanently in the top 2 or top 3. But 2023–2025 marked his absolute domination. He was HLTV #1 again in 2023, and all signs point to him holding that spot in 2025 as well. His contribution to Vitality’s victories is total: Majors, Pro League, Blast Premier — he’s always either MVP or TOP-3 in stats. The difference in career paths played a key role in their earnings.
At his hype peak in 2021, s1mple maximized his contract, launched collaborations (including with Logitech G), and built a Twitch channel. He didn’t just play — he sold his legend. But once he stepped back from full tournament grind, his income from prize money and salary dropped. More freedom, but less steady esports income.
The numbers show how crucial timing was:
- In 2021, s1mple could pull in up to $1.5 million in one year from contracts, prize money, and sponsors
- In 2025, ZywOo is making $1.4–1.5 million — and with his current trajectory, that’s not even his ceiling
Timing is money. One shot his way into an era when CS:GO was at its peak and the media frenzy was real. The other came during a period of steady growth, with a focus on results. Both are leaders. But ZywOo today is the living “prime,” and s1mple is a living legend.
Salaries, Skins, Streams: Where the Real Money Came From
Tournaments are flashy, but in 2025, making money isn’t just about winning the grand finals. Esports today is a business, and both ZywOo and s1mple have their own ways to cash in on their fame. Who earns behind the scenes, and who earns on the server?
Contracts
As we mentioned earlier, ZywOo’s salary on his new contract is estimated between €83k and €100k per month. Vitality built a whole structure around him, treating him like a franchise player — and he’s delivering. Top results mean top pay.
s1mple’s story is different. After taking a break in 2023 and making rare comebacks in 2024, Sasha didn’t return to a full tournament schedule. But he didn’t quit the scene completely, either. According to public info, he’s still on the contract signed back in 2022, with a salary around $50,000 per month. Unfortunately, data about salaries from the teams he temporarily played for isn’t available.
Sponsors and Brands
There’s also a big difference in approach here. s1mple has always been the face of the scene. In 2021 he launched collabs — PC mice, mousepads, ad campaigns — all building the “s1mple brand.”
By 2025, he was strongly linked with giants like AMD (ambassador since 2019) and HyperX (through NAVI partnership), and has had collaborations with G2A as well.
ZywOo, on the other hand, isn’t chasing the spotlight. But he’s also landing major brand deals. In May 2025, he became the global ambassador for ASUS ROG gaming keyboards, helping develop new devices. Besides that, as Vitality’s face, he’s connected to many partners like Tezos, JBL, Secretlab, Kingston, and so on.
Streams and Content
Here, s1mple takes the lead again. He’s been monetizing his Twitch for years — in 2025 he streamed on both Twitch and Kick, mixing fan streams with match analysis. Average viewers range from 12k to 18k, with peaks hitting 35k. From subscriptions, donations, and sponsorship deals, estimates put his monthly earnings between $20k and $40k.
ZywOo? He barely streams, so it’s hard to point to any big numbers here, Beyond salaries, prize money, and sponsorships, players also make a significant income from sales of in-game stickers featuring their autographs.
KennyS once noted that if a team reaches playoffs and wins a Major, players can earn anywhere from half a million to a million dollars just from stickers. Even in the worst case — if a player is knocked out early — they still get six-figure sums. In this regard, Sasha and Mathieu are on par.
Europe’s Favorite Duel: What the Numbers Actually Say
They ran almost in sync for five years: MVPs, HLTV top rankings, fans, hype. But 2025 showed cracks in the parity. Financially, one of them became unreachable. How and why?
2023 was a turning point. s1mple took a break — personal reasons and burnout from the scene. He returned in 2024, but it was no longer “Sasha’s Year”.
ZywOo, on the contrary, was gaining momentum. He became the face of the renewed Vitality and had one of the best seasons of his career. A semi-final at PGL Copenhagen, a final at BLAST Austin, a victory at IEM Melbourne, and the grand final of ESL Pro League. HLTV rates his average LAN rating at 1.25 — the highest among all players who played over 50 maps.
2025 in MVPs — no contest. This year alone, ZywOo earned 6 MVP awards, and it’s not over yet. By 2025, Mathieu reached a career peak with 26 MVP medals. He not only caught up with s1mple’s 21 but confidently left him behind.
We already talked about salaries and streams. The overall picture is clear: for the first time in his career, ZywOo is genuinely out-earning s1mple across all income streams.
s1mple is a self-made legend. He built his own league, style, and positioning. He worked on his image, emotions, and presence. But increasingly, he’s focusing on a post-CS career: brands, investments, rumors about a VALORANT transfer or going full-time streaming.
ZywOo is all about form — not fashion, but gameplay form. He stays low-key in the media, avoids drama, but plays at a level where the marketing happens organically. He’s the player who just goes out and wins. And in 2025, his “quiet” style spoke louder than any of Sasha’s tweets.
Conclusion
So, stripping away emotions and nostalgia — 2025 was the year the scales tipped. Not towards experience, not towards “legend,” but towards form, consistency, and the right position in the ecosystem. ZywOo didn’t just win more — he was in the right place, at the right time, in the right shape.
s1mple is still awesome, his name still grabs headlines, and yes — he remains a cult figure. But the money and status in 2025 weren’t on the side of the “CS symbol.” They belonged to the player who talked less and hit more.
This year, ZywOo became more than just an aiming genius. He became marketing-mature, team-stable, and media-important. He’s no longer “the successor,” he’s a competitor here and now. And by all signs — he won 2025.
And s1mple? Maybe he’s taking a pause before the next jump. Maybe he will rise like a phoenix with FaZe, maybe launching a media empire. But this year — it wasn’t his. And that’s not a failure, it’s just a phase. Greats don’t disappear — they come back.
But if they meet again on the stage in the grand final of the next Major… everything can turn upside down.
