T1 the Business: How Faker's Club Finally Turned a Profit

For most of its life, T1 was the most famous esports team in the world and a business that lost money. In 2025 that finally changed. The club's annual accounts show revenue of 88.64 billion won (about $60 million), up 80.8% on the year before, and an operating profit of 2.51 billion won, the first in the company's history.

The numbers, published in an audit report in April 2026, arrived in a year when T1 had just won its sixth League of Legends world title and the first three-peat in Worlds history. They also show that what fans buy, more than what sponsors pay, now drives the club.

From BoxeR's team to a joint venture

T1 started as a StarCraft team. Lim "BoxeR" Yo-hwan founded a squad called Orion in 2002, and SK Telecom took it over in April 2004, renaming it SK Telecom T1. On 13 December 2012 the telecom company bought a League of Legends roster called Eat Sleep Game, and a few months later signed a teenage mid laner named Lee Sang-hyeok. You know the rest.

The modern company was born on 15 October 2019, when SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor, the Philadelphia sports and entertainment group, launched a joint venture called T1 Entertainment & Sports. The League team dropped "SK Telecom" from its name and became simply T1. The venture's first chief executive was Joe Marsh, previously the head of business for Comcast Spectacor's gaming division, and it also took in teams in Fortnite, Dota 2, PUBG, Super Smash Bros., Hearthstone and Apex Legends.

Where the money comes from

The 2025 accounts break revenue down in two useful ways. By type, 74.14 billion won was "point in time" revenue, which mostly means merchandise and other goods sold to fans, up 86.9%. The rest, 14.51 billion won, was recognised "over time," which covers advertising and sponsorship, up 55%.

By region, the picture is even more striking:

• South Korea: 51.79 billion won, up 89.7%
• The Americas: 23.59 billion won, up 93.5%
• Asia outside Korea: 10.39 billion won, up 36.1%
• Europe: 2.87 billion won, up 51.3%

More than a quarter of T1's revenue now comes from the Americas, a market where it does not even play in a regional league. That is what a global fan base looks like on a balance sheet: jerseys, collectibles and event goods bought by fans who follow Faker from Los Angeles, São Paulo or Manila.

Two unnamed business partners stand out. "Company A" paid 12.93 billion won, 14.6% of all revenue, and "Company B" 10.58 billion won. Both more than doubled their spending.

The costs of winning

Winning is expensive. Team operating costs, which include player salaries, rose 25.5% to 30.68 billion won in 2025. T1's roster is one of the most decorated in the game, and keeping a world-champion line-up together is not cheap in a league where rivals are always bidding.

The accounts also show how far T1 still has to go. At the end of 2025 the company carried an accumulated deficit of 74.12 billion won, the sum of years of losses, and a debt ratio of 713.1%. In March 2026 its board approved a private placement of new shares, and by 26 March it had received 11.39 billion won of fresh capital.

2026: a quieter year on the stage

On the stage, 2026 has been tougher. T1 reached the Worlds semifinals again but lost 3-1 to China's Bilibili Gaming on 8 November, ending a run of four straight Worlds finals and its first-ever best-of-five knockout loss to an LPL team at the event. Gen.G and BLG play the final on 14 November in Brooklyn; see our road to the final.

The brand kept growing elsewhere. At the 2026 Esports World Cup in Paris, T1 finished third in the Club Championship standings with 1,600 points, behind Team Falcons and Team Liquid.

Why it matters

T1's first profit matters beyond one club. For years, critics said esports teams could never make money because sponsorship and league revenue were too small. T1's numbers suggest a different model: a team that sells itself like a pop group or a football giant, with fans buying goods around the world. Very few clubs have a Faker to sell, but T1's accounts show that the ceiling for the biggest brands is higher than many thought.

The risk is just as clear. A business built on one era of stars depends on keeping them. For the history behind that brand, read our SKT T1 dynasty feature and Faker's career profile.

WGC's take: A 2.5 billion won profit on 88.6 billion won of revenue is a thin margin, not a fortune. But for esports' most famous club, being in the black at all is a milestone worth noting.