Esports has come a long way in popularity and profitability. From its humble beginnings, the industry weathered countless bouts of stigma and desolation to become one of the fastest-growing sources of entertainment in the world. Asking “What is the biggest esports tournament?” it’s a more than legitimate question and below you will find your answer. Some people might be surprised by how big these tournaments can get but if they were following this industry for long enough then they would not have been caught off guard with such an obvious response to their inquiry.
Relative to the evolution of video games, esports underwent various eras that eventually led to the current condition it inhabits. From the cramped halls of college dorms in the 1970s to the mega indoor stadiums of the 2020s, esports’ history and appeal grew to transcend the old stereotype that branded players as hopeless social rejects.
Before we answer this question, we need to define what the ‘biggest tournament in esports’ is. Does it relate to prize pool size? Or perhaps the viewership numbers? What about the logistics? Well, for the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on the prize pool first. The reason is simple: The larger the prize pool, the more prestigious the tournament. Viewership tends to follow the cash trail but not exclusively. Still, when you have an event with multiple millions of dollars at stake, it’s impossible not to put it at the top.
And there’s only one valid answer – the biggest esports tournament in history is The International for Dota 2.
The International coming into first place is no surprise to anyone familiar with esports. Dota 2’s centerpiece event cracks in the list as having the biggest esports tournament prize pool in the industry. Let’s take a look at the prize pool breakdown for these yearly events:
This is all fact. The top 7 esports tournaments with the largest prize pools are all The International. Combined, these 7 tournaments saw Valve prepare $182,698,894 for the participants. Now that’s luxury! But how does Valve do this when all the other esports tournaments barely scratch the $10 million mark? Well, it’s all to do with how Valve approaches the prize pool.
For each International event, Valve releases a battle pass (called the “Compendium”). Players like yourself can purchase the battle pass to receive various in-game items and bonuses but 25% of the earnings of each battle pass directly go toward the next International’s prize pool. So it’s safe to say that each player directly contributes to how much money the participating esports teams will win based on their success.
Of course, Valve also contributes to the prize pool directly but the majority of it comes from the Average Joe. This has been going on for more than a decade, in fact the first time it was put in effect was in 2013.
Image Credit: Red Bull
The winner of each International takes home roughly 45% of the entire prize pool. Team Spirit, who won The International 2021, pocketed an incredible $18,208,300 for their efforts! Who says esports doesn’t pay bills?
However, this sort of prize pool financing does have its drawbacks. For starters, it can be extremely volatile. We can see that the difference between the 7th biggest esports tournament (The International 2015) and the biggest one (The International 2021) is a whopping $22,000,000! For reference, The International 2024 has the 62nd biggest esports tournament prize pool in history, with ‘just’ $2,581,982 in prize money.
What this tells us is that depending on the willingness and number of active Dota 2 players to purchase the battle pass, as well as the quality of said battle pass (price + the value of what you get), the prize pool will change. You wouldn’t want to pay $20 for a battle pass that gives you one or two skins, right?
Secondly, this forces Valve’s hand to constantly keep updating the game and bringing new things to keep players interested. But they also need to keep the esports side professional and exciting too.
We will have to see what Valve does in the future and whether or not they will be able to bring back the larger prize pools of the past to the forefront yet again. But for now, The International is the undisputed king of esports tournament prize pools.
We mustn’t forget that Dota 2 is not the only esports game with large prize pools. Let’s take a look at some other games that have hosted large prize pools for their tournaments:
IC: WallpaperAccess
Epic Games threw their first major esports event for their flagship game with a massive bang. With $30 million up for grabs in two events (solo and duo), the Fortnite World Cup Finals hosted 200 eager players who looked to make their mark on the game’s nascent history.
With the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York serving as the main setting, Fortnite crowned Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf as its first world champion after winning the singles event, beating 99 other players. Additionally, he won $3 million in prize money, becoming one of esports richest players overnight.
In the duos, Europeans Emil “nyhrox” Pederson and David “aqua” Wang outlasted 49 other pairs to win $3 million of their own.
Image Credit: HoK on YouTube
Honor of Kings is a game that is extremely popular in Asia and South America and the 2022 International Championship was the culmination of that popularity. With a prize pool of $10,000,000, it saw 16 teams compete for the grand prize of $3,500,000 across almost a month of gaming (from December 3rd to December 30th, 2022).
In the end, it was eStar Pro who took home the win after a hard-fought battle against Gank Gaming which resulted in a 4-2 win against the latter. The event was held in Shenzhen, China, and Seoul, South Korea, with the Grand Final taking place in the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre. Surprisingly, just 9,816 spectators tuned in to watch the Grand Finals from home, with the rest watching in-person from the arena.
But don’t let these viewership numbers confuse you; Honor of Kings (or Arena of Valor as it’s called internationally) has more than 3 million daily players, making it one of the most popular games in the world (but primarily Asia and South America as mentioned before).
© Susquehanna Soniqs
From February 5 to March 28, PUBG held its first major event of the 2021 season with the PUBG Global Invitational.S, a 32-team tournament with $7.1 million in prize money, the largest in the game’s history.
The original prize pool was $3.5 million, but thanks to crowdfunding and other monetary guarantees, it doubled to $7.1 million. With teams participating in three distinct locations, PGI.S lasted for two months of league play, culminating in an extraordinary finale.
When the dust settled, NA’s Susquehanna Soniqs became world champions and earned the $1,296,189 grand prize.
Image Credit: Polygon
LoL Worlds is likely the most watched esports event in history. With its 2018 iteration attracting nearly a hundred million viewers, it is by far the largest esports tournament by audience count. The prize purse for Worlds is never high enough to compete with the likes of The International of the Fortnite World Cup, but was still a “decent” $6.7 million in 2018 up from $4.5 million in 2017.
Riot Games’ objective was never to award huge prize purses, as most teams in the competitive ecosystem already have franchised leagues and profit-sharing deals. However, with such a huge audience count, their “humble” prize funds are still up there among the biggest prize pools in esports history.
Similar to the growth of tournaments, esports betting is increasing in popularity as well. With the creation of various esports betting websites, fans can wager their money with the potential of incurring a hefty profit. Even so, the appeal of accurately predicting the winner of a match isn’t the only thing in esports betting. People can also wager on specific situations to happen in a game, such as in traditional sports.
Although people can bet in whatever tournament they prefer to cover, it doesn’t hurt for them to try their luck in the biggest events esports has to offer. With this perspective, the possibilities of betting are practically endless.
Such contests include Dota 2’s The International, the League of Legends World Championship, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s catalogue of majors, and the Overwatch League.
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