Esports is a global phenomenon that is becoming more popular every year. The days when people considered professional gamers as people who waste their time are long gone. Nowadays, the best teams and players make a lot of money from competing in various events.
Speaking of competitions, the data from Nostrabet.com shows that the cumulative tournament prize pool in Dota 2 reached $32.85M in 2022. “The fact that the best Dota 2 stars in the world have competed for more than $32M is really impressive. However, 2022 wasn’t the most successful year for the game, especially compared to 2021”, said Veselin, NB’s eSports expert.
The fact that Dota 2 provided such a large prize pool is great but is this impressive when compared to other eSports? Well, we are about to walk you through some top titles and learn more about them.
Dota 2
The fact that Dota 2 leads the chart regarding eSports with the largest prize pool in 2022 shouldn’t surprise. The game has been around for ages and has many solid fans. Naturally, thousands of people watch some of Dota 2’s biggest tournaments.
Speaking of Dota 2 and events, one of the things that some people dislike about this game is how the events are structured. A competition called “DPC” is the official league where the best teams play against each other. Each region has its own DPC, but this league doesn’t provide a lot of money compared to some events.
The tournament that gives a jaw-dropping amount is The International. This Dota 2 tournament holds multiple records for its astounding prize pools, and in 2022, the reward reached almost $19M. Although this is a lot of money, the 2021 version of TI had more than $40M. Unsurprisingly, this tournament holds the record for the highest prize pool in eSports.
Arena of Valor
Even though Dota 2 leads the chart for the largest prize pool, Arena of Valor is close behind. In 2022, this game gave the best players in the world a total of $32.73M, which makes it almost as “generous” as Valve’s title.
Arena of Valor is a MOBA, but unlike Dota 2 and League of Legends, this is a mobile game. Following its release in 2016, the game quickly established itself as one of the most popular mobile titles. Unsurprisingly, millions from all over the world play on a daily basis.
When it came down to the prize pools in 2022, Arena of Valor gave eSports players and fans numerous events to watch. After the smaller events in early 2022, RoV Pro League 2022 Summer was the year’s first big championship. It provided more than a $300k prize pool.
Several tournaments gave a couple of million each, but the 2022’s highlight was the Honor of Kings International Championship 2022. This event had a whopping $10M prize and featured the best teams in the world. Don’t be confused by the Honor of Kings name, this is the same game as Arena of Valor, but it is popular in China.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile
Also known as PUBG Mobile, this game has established itself as the leader in its genre among mobile players. Based on PUBG’s PC version, this battle royal has millions of players from every corner of the world, and its events gave the best in the world a total of $23.42M.
Concerning PUBG Mobile and its eSports scene, 2022 was an interesting year, to say the least. We had the chance to watch tons of tournaments throughout the years. In fact, NEW STATE MOBILE Open Challenge was the first big event of 2022, and it featured a $250K prize pool.
Interestingly, this was the event with the largest prize pool of the year. Unlike Dota 2, where there is one event with a massive reward, all of PUBG Mobile’s tournaments featured a consistent reward of around $100K and up. The last big event was the PUBG Mobile Pro League – SEA Championship Fall 2022, which had a $200K reward.
Fortnite
Speaking of battle royals, we have to mention Fortnite, the game that took over the world after it became available. Although the initial hype is over, Fortnite continues to be among the top-tier computer games in the world. Consequently, the title gave its best players more than $16.2M in 2022.
Like PUBG Mobile, most of the big Fortnite competitions had a relatively high prize pool of $100K and up. However, there were some exceptions, such as the Fortnite Champion Series: Chapter 3 Season 2 Europe. This event had a whopping $1.3M reward and more than 5.6M hours watched, which is really impressive.
Regarding big rewards, Gamers8 2022 was the year’s highlight with its $2M prize pool. Sadly, Fortnite fans didn’t have the chance to watch the Fortnite World Cup. In 2019, this became one of the events with the largest prize pool because it had a $30M reward.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The next spot on our list is one of the world’s oldest and most impressive shooters. CSGO has been around for many years and has established itself as the leading eSports in its genre. Despite its age, 2022 was a very good year for the game, which is why its tournaments’ prize pool reached $16.11M.
Since CSGO turned 10 years old, the game has allowed us to watch tons of big events. What’s more, s1mple, one of the game’s stars, became the eSports player of the year for the 2nd time. Unsurprisingly, this also boosted CSGO’s popularity.
In terms of the events in 2022, we had the chance to watch numerous big ones. The first tournament with over a $1M prize pool took place in February, and it was the Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Katowice. Following it, the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 also had a $1M reward, and the same applies to IEM XVII Cologne and Blast Premier: World Final 2022. However, IEM Rio Major 2022 became the event with the largest prize pool because it gave the best teams $1.25M.
League of Legends: Wild Rift
The last spot on our list regarding eSports titles and their tournaments’ prize pool is League of Legends: Wild Rift. Some of you probably expected to find the classic LoL for PC here, but it turns out the mobile version provided almost 2x better rewards.
League of Legends: Wild Rift is one of Arena of Valor’s its main competitors, so it shouldn’t be surprising that Riot Games wants to stimulate its pro players. There were events with more than a $150k prize pool throughout the year. However, the “star of the show” was Icons Global Championship 2022 with its $2M reward.
Although the game was released in 2020, LoL: Wild Rift is becoming more popular daily. As a result, some people assume that the game will have even more tournaments in 2023.
Final Thoughts
Each eSport title mentioned above has a loyal fanbase because they love watching their favourite players. Needless to say, fans also play their favourite titles and have fun with their friends.
One of the exciting trends in the eSports scene is related to the fact that mobile games are slowly taking over. Even though Dota 2 is only available on PC and has the largest prize pools, we wouldn’t be surprised if titles like Arena of Valor take the first spot in 2023.
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