Shroud Net Worth

What is Shroud's net worth?

Shroud, also known as Michael Grzesiek, is a Canadian YouTuber and competitive gamer who has a net worth of $40 million. Shroud is best known as a former professional player of the first-person tactical shooter game "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive." Through his live-streaming, he has become one of the most-followed users on the platform Twitch, with over 11 million followers. He's often compared to and competes with/against Tyler "Ninja" Blevins.

Microsoft Mixer/Facebook Contract Buyout

In October 2019, following in Ninja's footsteps, Shroud accepted a contract to leave Twitch and become exclusive to Microsoft's Mixer app. In June 2020, Microsoft announced it was shuttering Mixer and folding the platform into Facebook Gaming. He was reportedly offered a significant contract from Facebook, supposedly two times his Microsoft contract. Shroud famously refused to join Facebook, which triggered a contract buyout from Microsoft. Ninja made the same decision. The combined payout was reportedly $40 million, with Shroud receiving $10 million and Ninja $30 million.

In August 2020, he returned to Twitch, reportedly having to pay as much as $10 million to buy himself out. His first stream after returning attracted more than 516,000 concurrent viewers.

Earnings

In a given year, Shroud earns $10-12 million from his expanding empire.

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Michael Grzesiek was born on June 2, 1994, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Originally using the handle mEclipse, Grzesiek began his professional gaming career in 2013 playing the tactical first-person shooter "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive." After starting out with the ESEA team Slow Motion, he played for Exertus eSports, Manajuma, and compLexity Gaming. In the summer of 2014, he joined Cloud9 when the team acquired compLexity's roster. Grzesiek had his greatest career success with Cloud9, helping to lead the team to the ESL Pro League Season 4 championship title in 2016. The next year, he stepped down from the starting roster, and in 2018 he left Cloud9 and retired from professional "Counter-Strike" gaming. Grzesiek returned to professional gaming in 2022 when he signed with the team Sentinels to play the tactical first-person shooter "Valorant." He made his debut in the North American Last Chance Qualifier for the 2022 Valorant Champions, and in his opening match reached a peak of 600,000 viewers.

Live-streaming and Content Creation

On his shroud Twitch channel, Grzesiek has amassed over 11 million followers, making the channel one of the most-followed on the platform. He streamed full-time on Twitch until late 2019 when he moved over to the Microsoft live-streaming platform Mixer. In mid-2020, Microsoft announced the cessation of Mixer and the establishment of a partnership with Facebook Gaming. Grzesiek allegedly received a hefty offer from Facebook that he declined in favor of the remainder of his contract payout with Mixer. On August 11, 2020, he announced he would be returning to Twitch, which he did the next day. In his first stream back on the platform, Grzesiek reached a peak of around 516,000 viewers. Grzesiek is also popular on YouTube, where his Shroud channel has over 6.8 million subscribers and upwards of 1.2 billion total views.

Grzesiek has also helped develop games. In 2022, he partnered with Mountaintop Studios as an advisor and investor in the creation of the video game "Spectre Divide." The first season of the game was released in early 2025. However, due to the game's lack of popularity as well as budget issues with the studio, the game was shut down by Mountaintop a couple of months later.

(Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images)

Awards and Nominations

Grzesiek has received a number of industry awards and nominations for his gaming and streaming. He earned his first major nomination in 2017, for Trending Gamer at the Game Awards. In 2019, Grzesiek was nominated for Streamer of the Year at the Esports Awards and Content Creator of the Year at the Game Awards, winning the latter. In both 2020 and 2021, he was nominated in the Live Streamer category at the Steamy Awards. Also in 2021, Grzesiek was nominated for Best FPS Streamer at the Streamer Awards, and won the Streamer Award for Gamer of the Year. He was nominated for Gamer of the Year again in 2023, but lost to Nicholas Stewart, better known as Jynxzi. In 2024, Grzesiek won the Streamer Legacy Award and earned a nomination for Best FPS Streamer.

Personal Life

In 2021, after living in Orange County, California for a while, Grzesiek bought a mansion in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles for $9.5 million. The two-acre property includes six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, plus an infinity-edged pool overlooking the SFV. Grzesiek lives there with his girlfriend Hannah Kenney, a fellow gamer and live-streamer known online as Bnans.

Real Estate

In September 2021, Michael paid $9.4 million for a mansion in a gated community in Hidden Hills, California. Shroud also owns a home in Irvine, California, which he bought in 2018

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