One of the eSports jobs which can be expected to gain more and more traction with time is that of a coach and analyst. And as that happens, the demand for eSports coaching jobs will rise too. If you are looking to understand how much do eSports coaches earn at the moment, here’s our guide explaining the same.
Gaming careers, especially for players right at the top of the pecking order aren’t the longest. Most of the gamers retire early and move on to other non-gaming roles related to eSports (some of which are mentioned in our exhaustive eSports job profiles here).
eSports coaching is one of the quickly-growing roles because of the increasing professionalism in the industry as a whole.
With such kind of a role, the players can focus on the gameplay alone, even as the coaches and the analyst can help strategize, work on the player strengths, aim to reduce mistakes, organize scrims (check what is scrimmage here) and in turn provide feedback for an overall improvement.
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What do eSports Coaches Do?
While an eSports coach’s responsibilities and how to become one deserves an article of its own, an eSports coach is involved in multiple aspects of the non-gaming part of eSports which are needed by the actual gamers and team players participating in competitions.
In short some of the requirements from an eSports coach include:
- Hone the Player Strengths
- Work on Reducing Weakness
- Develop an Optimum Cohesion Between Players in a Team
- Keep an Eye on Opposition
- Strategic and Tactical Inputs
- Improving Player Skills
- Motivate Player Morale
- Inculcate Discipline
- Select the Best Possible Team
- Conflict Resolution
- Remain in Touch with the Latest in That Game
- Arrange for Practice Matches or Scrimmage among others
Here’s another indicator of the kind of responsibilities involved as an eSports coach, according to a job posting with InsideHiredEd.com.
Skimming through the aforementioned list would give you an indicator of the importance of the job of an eSports coach, which in turn brings us to the big question here.
Also Read:
- How Much do eSports Shoutcasters Earn?
- How Much do eSports Streamers Earn?
- What is an eSports Gamer’s Career Length?
How much do eSports coaches earn?
According to a report on Indeed.com, an eSports coach earns anywhere between $15-$18/hour in 2020-21. The more professional an eSports team is, the better are the chances of the coach to get a retainer or an annual contract rather than be paid on an hourly basis.
At the lower end of the spectrum are typically assistant coaches like analysts, whose job is to prune through relevant data, either on their own or at the behest of the main coach which helps solve any kind of an issue.
The higher salaries are typically reserved for the head coach, who is in-charge of handling the scrimmage, improve player and team strengths while working on weaknesses, cater to the short and long-term strategic side of things and even analyze opponents to help bring his/her team success.
According to a – rather outdated – report on the Wall Street Journal, eSports coaches earned an average of $40,000 per annum in 2015.
Things have obviously changed and done so drastically. So to make a rough guesstimate on how much change has an eSports coach’s salary undergone over a period of the five years between 2015 and 2020, we can look at the increase in the worth of the eSports industry as a whole.
Back in 2015, the eSports industry was worth $325 million which has now grown to anywhere between $1-1.75 billion depending on which estimate you believe in. Rounding it off to $1.4 billion, there has been an increase of more than 300% over the five-year period.
Typically, the income for players might have risen by more than 300% in the same period and while the same might not have been applicable for the coaches as well, salaries can be expected to have doubled at the very least.
Which means we can look at full-time salaries of around $80,000-100,000 each year for eSports coaches.
Salaries for ProGuides Coaches
ProGuides.com is an eSports coaching service whereby prospective eSports players can book premium coaches to train them on the different aspects of a game in eSports.
At the time of writing, the per month cost of these online training sessions is approximately $8/month, billed annually for $96.
The coaching is provided in the form of pre-recorded video sessions by some of the top eSports coaches from around the world, and these coaches are paid a monthly salary.
According to a report in the Business Insider here (could be behind a paywall), these coaches can earn anywhere between $4000-5000/month.
Face to face coaching sessions can cost up to $12/half hour, but depending on the demand for a particular coach, this rate can be tweaked up or down.
Other Sources
While it isn’t the easiest to get the actual eSports coaching salaries, we can get a fair indicator of how thing are moving in the specific area based on how much salaries were on offer in the past.
Another job posting on Team Liquid‘s official website, seeking a head coach in 2015 for their office in Santa Monica, CA, offered $32,000-55,000/year depending on the experience.
Final Words
While the above information should be a good place to kick things off, we will update this piece with the latest eSports coaching and analyst salaries as and when we get the opportunity to interview coaches from the industry.