MW The winner of EA's 'Madden' videogame tournament will get more prize money than the NFL's Super Bowl champions

By Weston Blasi

The 'Madden' tournament will pay its winner $250,000, while Super Bowl champs each received $171,000

Kids who are obsessed with football may dream of someday winning the Super Bowl - but winning a football videogame competition actually pays more.

On Monday, a game of Electronic Arts' $(EA)$ flagship "Madden" American football videogame will be played between gamers Jonathan "JonBeast" Marquez and Jacob "Fancy" Worthington, with a $250,000 prize for the winner and $150,000 for the runner-up.

This season's "Madden NFL 25" Championship Series esports event had a record amount of money at stake: $1.7 million in total tournament prizes for all players, up from $1 million last year. The quarter-million-dollar prize for the winner of the tournament is the same figure as last year.

While esports is a newer industry than the NFL - the multibillion-dollar sports league that the "Madden" game is based on - the prize pool is bigger for gamers than for the Super Bowl's actual players.

For example, when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX last month, players were rewarded with a lucrative prize: Each player on the winning team was given $171,000 (up from $164,000 the previous season), and each player on the losing team received $96,000 (up from $89,000), according to the NFL's collective bargaining agreement.

That means the winner of Monday's "Madden" tournament will actually earn more than each member of the Eagles got from the NFL for winning the Super Bowl.

Of course, NFL players are not just paid in bonuses; they earn money from their contracts and off-field endorsements too, which can bring their overall yearly earnings into the millions. NFL players also have additional bonuses worked into their contracts; Saquon Barkley received a $500,000 bonus and Jalen Hurts had a $1.5 million salary escalator for winning the Super Bowl.

"We're looking forward to bringing our community a new and exciting experience from London with our first Madden NFL esports final," Monica Dinsmore, head of esports at EA, said in a statement. "It's a great chance for our finalists to get the championship moment they deserve while also celebrating the growing passion for American football on the world stage."

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The record prize for the "Madden" tournament shows just how popular esports has become. Other esports competitions have big prizes as well; the recent FC Pro Open, an online soccer tournament where gamers played the "EA Sports FC 25" videogame, gave $532,000 in prizes to players, while the "Fortnite" Championship Series had a $7.6 million prize pool that was given out last year as part of a series of tournaments.

According to esportsearnings.com, nearly 200 gamers have amassed over $1 million in total career prizes.

The total esports market was valued at $4.3 billion in 2024, up from $1.1 billion in 2017, according to Statista's Market Insights. That figure is expected to grow to nearly $6 billion by 2029.

The 2025 edition of the "Madden Bowl" final will start at 7 p.m. Eastern time Monday and will be broadcast on EA's "Madden" Twitch and YouTube channels for free.

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-Weston Blasi

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March 03, 2025 16:58 ET (21:58 GMT)

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