In an industry where teams have often risen and fallen within a handful of seasons over its formative years, Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP) reached a remarkable milestone in 2025, as they celebrate their 25 year anniversary.
Founded in Sweden in 2000, NIP has navigated competitive peaks, market downturns, and full-scale industry shifts — emerging today as a global esports and gaming entertainment business. The longevity alone makes NIP an outlier. But according to CEO Hicham Chahine, this moment isn’t just for celebration, it’s an opportunity for reflection.
“I actually do not consider it an anomaly,” Chahine says. “I consider it a testament to how far esports has come. We’re one of the oldest teams in the world — but you also have teams like Team Liquid and OG. Ten years from now, we’ll be celebrating 25 years of the teams that came up in 2014 to 2016.”
Founded in 2000 at the dawn of the Counter-Strike 1.6 era, NIP gained early international attention with a CPL Copenhagen victory in 2001. The organisation experienced various iterations — including the temporary departure of star players to SK Gaming and a rebrand back to its independent identity — before returning to prominence in CS:GO with an unprecedented 87–0 LAN win streak between 2012 and 2013. The team’s 2014 Major victory at ESL One Cologne secured its legendary status.
As Chahine notes, those early titles created a sense of expectation that’s never really gone away. “One of the biggest pressures I felt at NiP, especially when I took over, was the legacy — the trophies, the titles, the people who cared. But that also became our fuel.”
But it wasn’t only about competitive success. Chahine believes that longevity in esports is much more rooted in operational discipline and honest expectations. “We’ve always had a realistic outlook on what was possible. Between 2016 and 2020, when the industry was flooded with hype, VC money, and over-scaling, we just kept doing NiP things. We didn’t grow recklessly. We’ve always tried to be clear-eyed about what’s sustainable.”
That discipline paid off. While many orgs scaled back or collapsed NIP expanded — cautiously but consistently — into new games like Rainbow Six, PUBG, and League of Legends (via its merger with Chinese team Victory Five). Today, the group operates 19 teams across 16 titles under the NIP Group umbrella.
It also diversified its business. Only 20% of the group’s current revenue comes from esports — including sponsorships, digital items, and media rights. The largest share (about half) comes from talent management, with over 36,000 streamers and creators under its agency. Events, publishing, hospitality, and production make up the rest — including everything from home stadium shows to music festivals and game publishing services.
This diversification wasn’t just a commercial move — it’s also given NIP’s players more breathing room. “It alleviates pressure. Sometimes CS wins, sometimes League wins. Our players aren’t carrying the whole brand alone anymore.”
Despite this wide footprint, community connection remains central. “Sometimes teams focus so much on titles that they don’t tell a story. But fans want something meaningful. Even when our CS team wasn’t winning, we maintained strong content, high quality, and stayed close to our community. That’s part of why we’re still here.”
In addition to long-term consistency, recent developments in 2025 underscore NIP’s continued relevance and adaptability. Through its Chairman and co-CEO Mario Ho, NIP Group announced a plan to open more than 100 esports hotels across mainland China within the next three years and launched the NIP Culture & Entertainment through a music festival in Beijing.
Plus, in January 2025, the organisation announced a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), reinforcing its ambitions in the MENA region. March saw a renewal of its long-standing relationship with Red Bull, one of the most recognisable brands in global sport. NIP also joined the Esports World Cup Club Partner Program, signed a jersey sponsorship with Rainbet, and formed a blockchain-focused partnership with Chiliz, reflecting its interest in new forms of fan engagement and digital monetisation.
Asked what moments shaped NIP’s path, Chahine highlights three: the 87–0 streak, the 2014 Major win, and the 2023 moment the NIP Group became a publicly traded company. “Ringing the bell in New York — that was a huge leap. It allows us to expand and futureproof NIP for the next 25 years.”
So what does that future look like?
“We want to be the largest esports team in the world by footprint and revenue,” he says. “We want more trophies, sure, but also to operate eight to ten verticals across the gaming entertainment space. The goal is to set the standard.”
For an organisation once founded out of passion at the dawn of esports, 25 years later, the vision has become global — but the roots remain unchanged.
“When NiP was founded, I don’t think anyone had a 25-year roadmap. But they believed in competitive gaming and the community around it. That belief is still what drives us.”
See below the full interview transcript:
The Esports Radar – We’re talking about 25 years. Do you consider this an anomaly for esports right now? How do you evaluate the fact that NiP is turning 25?
Hicham Chahine – I actually do not consider it an anomaly. Yes, maybe it’s an irregularity. You have us, Team Liquid, and some other pretty cool legacy brands like OG. So not an anomaly — I consider it more a testament to how far esports has come. It’s exciting because ten years from now, we’ll be celebrating 20 or 25 years of all the teams that came up in the era of 2014, 2015, and 2016. So no, I see it as a testament. And yes, maybe we are unique — one of the oldest teams in the world.
The Esports Radar – What did these teams you mentioned do right over a quarter century? A lot of other organisations didn’t make it this far.
Hicham – If you look at NiP’s history and legacy, it’s always been done with a realistic outlook on the world — especially between 2016 and 2020, when you had the mainstream boom, the hype, VC money coming in, people over-scaling, and then having to scale back or shut down. NiP has just been doing NiP things for 25 years. We’ve been cautious about the size of the industry, what’s sustainable, and what’s not. Maybe you can sum it up as discipline, which is funny because that’s one of our core values as Ninjas. So: do what you do, have a realistic outlook, don’t take excessive crazy risks, and focus on being the best at what you’re here to do — playing video games.
Something I believe is that organisations don’t need titles to survive. Sometimes they focus so much on titles but don’t tell a story — they win something but don’t become relevant or engage communities. NiP, on the other hand, has so many titles and such a dominant period in Counter-Strike. How does NiP leverage those titles to tell a story and build the foundation that keeps NiP standing today?
Hicham – One of the biggest pressures I felt at NiP, especially when I took over, was the legacy: all the trophies, the titles, the people who cared, all the emotions attached. That’s probably the biggest pressure. At NiP, we focus on two main things. One: yes, we won a lot in Counter-Strike, and in other games too, and we try to keep that momentum so fans get key highlights and moments. Two: our creative, social media, and community teams work hard to engage the fanbase. My goal has always been that even when you’re winning, you should never be arrogant or above the fans. When you suck, you should own it — but engage meaningfully. Look at our Counter-Strike team: we haven’t won much for a long time, but we maintain a close connection with the fans through approachability and high-quality content. So yes, your thesis is right, and NiP is a prime example. We were born in the 2000s in a community, and we’re still very much community-first.
The Esports Radar – Now, NiP started with Counter-Strike, but now you’re in other esports. How was it getting the community to follow NiP beyond just caring about Counter-Strike?
Hicham – At the beginning, it wasn’t hard — just different. For example, look at our entry into Rainbow Six: we had an extremely competitive team at the Six Invitational finals, then we won it the year after. It was a bit rough ripping off that band-aid at first — not being just Counter-Strike — but people have grown accustomed to NiP as a group that now has 19 different teams in 16 different game titles. We keep the content and channels differentiated and are careful not to oversaturate. Every esports community is different, and you need to tailor to that. We’ve done a pretty good job, I’d say. From a player perspective, it’s also nice — being part of a group with so many games alleviates pressure. Sometimes CS wins; other times League of Legends or Honor of Kings wins. Being multi-gaming now feels natural.
The Esports Radar – When NIP was founded, was there a long-term vision up to 25 years?
Hicham – When Ninjas in Pyjamas was founded back in 2000, I don’t think anyone involved at the time had a 25-year roadmap laid out. Esports was in its infancy. The space was more about passion and community than it was about long-term business scalability. That said, what they did have was a deep belief in the competitive spirit of gaming and the idea that this could grow into something massive, which is still present today.
When I came on board, we absolutely started looking at NIP as a brand with the potential to last decades. We began investing not just in players, but in diversifying into relevant verticals and expanding on a truly global scale. So while a 25-year vision may not have been explicit at the very start, it’s definitely how we think now.
The Esports Radar – Can you choose 3 to 5 moments you would say were crucial for NIP’s existence?
Hicham – From a competitive standpoint, it would have to be our Major win at Cologne in 2014. To be the first team to lift the Cologne trophy in the [Counter-Strike:] Global Offensive era, and one of the first to lift a CS:GO Major trophy, is a memory that will always stick with us and continues to set the bar of where we want to succeed competitively.
A close second would of course be the 87-0 streak from 2012 to 2013, a feat that has been untouched for more than 12 years now, despite several teams dominating during different periods of the esport. As f0rest [Patrik Lindberg, former CS:GO player at NiP] said recently, it’s unlikely we will see anything like it again in esports.
And then, from a professional standpoint, it has to be ringing the bell alongside Co-CEO Mario Ho in New York as we became publicly listed on the American stock exchange. It has been a huge leap forward for NIP, which is allowing us to further diversify and expand as a business in order to future proof ourselves for the next 25 years.
The Esports Radar – And where do you see NiP in 25 years?
Hicham: Still the largest esports team in the world in terms of footprint and revenue, I hope. We work every day to establish one of those dominant eras again. Our aspiration is to have another one of those eras over the next 25 years. My biggest goal is to set the standard.
We’re an esports team approaching $100 million in revenue, with eight offices globally and 400 employees. Even though esports is going through a tough time — the so-called esports winter — we have business pillars we can rely on that make everything sustainable. I hope we can keep setting that example. I don’t know what the world will look like in 25 years, but I want NiP to show you can take esports and build talent management, events, productions, games publishing — a wider gaming entertainment business. Esports will still be at the core. Hopefully, we’ll have more trophies, but also be operating 8–10 different business verticals that give us more resources to do esports really, really well.
The Esports Radar – You mentioned revenue — what are NiP’s main revenue channels?
Hicham – Currently, about 20% of the business is esports — that’s sponsorships, media rights, broadcasting rights, digital items. About half is talent management — we have 36,000 live streamers, content creators, and influencers in our agency. Events production is about 10–15%, where we produce home games and stadiums for LPL and KPL, music festivals, concerts, and productions for game publishers. We also have gaming hospitality — essentially esports hotels — and a publishing vertical. Over time, we expect esports to go below 10% as we scale the other verticals. That’s great because it makes us sustainable and lets us invest more into the esports side of the business.
