Esports as an industry is in it's prime. Professional video gaming is now a legitimate career path that can turn gamers into millionaires.

These tournaments are continuing to receive huge investments, with some agreeing massive sponsorships such as this weekend's European League of Legends Championship Series finals being sponsored by BMW.

DOTA 2 still tops the list after incredibly rewarding over £25million just this year. The monumental amount is still less than last year as in 2016 DOTA dished out £29m. However, there is still four months left of 2017 so there is plenty of time for that record to be beaten.

DOTA has given out £25m this year alone, Team Liquid won over £8m in the DOTA International

Over £53m has already been given out this year across all esport titles, which despite being a phenomenal amount is still behind last year's record of £75m in esport prize fees. However, there are still some major esports tournaments left to play this year including the League of Legends World Championships and multiple Counter Strike: Global Offensive DreamHack tournaments which are guaranteed to substantially boost this year's overall.

And on top of that, more games could still reach the $1m mark. Survival sandbox game H1Z1 is already close with $819,000 and Rocket League, which currently stands at $588,000, will offer another $400,000 in prizes as part of RLCS 4 and new secondary league, the RLRS.

Obviously, DOTA 2, League of Legends and CS:GO are on the list but they are joined by some other less common names. Call of Duty and Halo are two of the biggest video game franchises in the world. They have monumental fan bases worldwide but their esport scenes are much more modest. Yet, both of them make the list with the most recent editions of their games: Call of Duty Infinite Warfare and Halo 5 Guardians.

This is particularly impressive from Halo 5 which only has 86 registered professional players. That may sound like a fair amount but that is nothing compared to CS:GO's 3539 professionals.

2017 has yielded over £53m in esport prizes and that's before the LoL World Championships

And Quake Champions has even less players, taking the 12th spot with only 71 players. Quake just makes the list with $1,014,000 [£778,000] after the Quake World Championships last week rewarded $660,000 [£513,000] in prizes.

And one game outside of the top 12 that is worth keeping an eye out for is PLAYERUNKNOWN's BATTLEGROUNDS or PUBG as fans call it. The game has exploded in popularity this Summer and has been one of the most-watched games on Twitch this month.

Despite the fact the game is still in early-access and hasn't had a full release, PUBG is already beginning to form an esports scene. There are currently only 30 players but within just four tournaments, a staggering $329,000 [£256,000] has been rewarded in prizes.

Esports shown no signs of slowing down, there are serious investments and sponsorships in the industry now. With four months of 2017 still to go, don't be surprised if we see last year's record of £75m be smashed this year. This year's overall fee may even break the £100m barrier.