Many people didn’t believe in eSports a couple of years ago, but now, things are different. Some of the world’s most popular games attract millions of viewers and players from all over the globe. Unsurprisingly, the leading eSports titles have big tournaments that offer a jaw-dropping amount of money.
According to data from Nostrabet.com, some of the leading eSports competitions offer millions of dollars to the best players in the world. Although the industry will keep growing and there might be changes, these are the most popular eSports tournaments in terms of their prize pool as of September 2022.
#10 Honor of Kings World Champion Cup 2021 – $7.73M
Honor of Kings is probably the world’s most popular mobile game, so it shouldn’t be surprising that it hosted one of the most significant eSports events. The 2021 Honor of Kings World Championship Duo was the sixth Champion Cup series and the biggest one yet. According to the official information, the event had a prize pool of around $7.73M.
Since Honor of Kings is very popular in China, the event was held in three cities:
- Chongqing
- Shanghai
- Beijing
Interestingly, the event should’ve occurred in Nanjing instead of Chongqing. Still, the organizers moved it due to the COVID-19 restrictions in China.
The Honor of Kings World Champion Cup 2021 had 12 teams. After an epic battle, QG Happy won the event and got around $3.25M from the total prize pool.
#9 The International 2014 – $10.93M
The number 9 sport on the list goes to Dota 2’s The International 2014. With a total of around $10.93M reward, this was the biggest eSports prize pool a couple of years ago. “The prize was so big that some people didn’t believe it was true”, said Nostrabet’s expert. “The reason why the reward grew astronomically from last year was Valve’s decision to allow Battle Pass owners to contribute. In other words, the Dota 2 community helped the event’s prize pool go up”.
The International 2014 (TI 4) took place in Seattle, Washington, and it included 19 teams. After a hard group stage and even deadlier playoffs, Newbee won the event. This was a Chinese Dota 2 team with some of the world’s best players at the time. Newbee won slightly over $5M, unheard of back in the day.
#8 Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 – Duo – $15.1M
Fortnite took over the world in 2019. This was undoubtedly the most popular game in the world, which explains why it had millions of players. Even the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Logan Paul, Drake, and many other superstars were a part of it.
There were numerous top-tier Fortnite competitions, but the Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 stood out. Aside from the solo, the duos’ version of the competition brought together some of the world’s best players. In addition to fame and glory, they compete for a jaw-dropping reward of $15.1M.
In the end, two players from team COOLER Esports won the championship and secured $3,000,000.
#7 Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 – Solo – $15.29M
Aside from the Duo version of the Fortnite World Cup Final 2019, the event’s organizers also hosted a solo variation. As expected, this version was even more popular because it included the best individual Fortnite players worldwide. As a result, this competition had a $15.29M prize pool.
The Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 took place on July 29, 2019, and included 100 players. After loads of epic matches, Budha from Sentinels won the event and secured an impressive $3,000,000.
In total, the solo and duo versions of the Fortnite World Cup had around a $30.2M prize pool, which was really impressive. However, Dota 2’s The International at the time had an even more impressive reward.
#6 The International 2015 – $18.43M
After the crazy jump in The International 14’s prize pool happened in 2015 and the year after. The 2015 version of this tournament had almost double the prize at $18.43M because of the Battle Pass. The in-game item was way better than last year’s because it provided more perks.
Most Dota 2 fans will remember the Grand Final of TI 5 when Evil Geniuses went up against CDEC Gaming. Despite being the underdogs, Fear and the rest of his team proved they were the best and won the competition. This allowed them to get a total of $6,63M.
Like TI 4, The International 2015 also took place in Seattle.
#5 The International 2016 – $20.77M
There were a couple of big tournaments in 2016, but The International was on top yet again regarding prize pools. Aside from having more than last year’s competition, TI 6 was also the first eSports event that broke the $20M prize pool. Needless to say, this brought a lot of attention, which had an effect on Dota 2’s popularity.
The International 2016 features 16 teams and took place in KeyArena, Seattle. After an epic battle between the best Dota 2 team in the world, Wings Gaming won the championship and secured around $9.1M, about 44% of the total prize pool. Sadly, this was the last TI won by a Chinese team because every other version of the event went in favour of the Europeans.
#4 The International 2017 – $24.69M
Following last year’s Dota 2 competition, the 2017 version of The International was even more exciting than the previous one. Aside from featuring 18 of the best teams in the world, this event had around a $24.69M prize pool, which was unheard of.
Every top-tier Dota 2 team gave everything they had to win the reward. Fans expected one of the Chinese teams to rip through the competition, but in the end, the European powerhouse Team Liquid lifted the trophy.
Following the team’s victory against Newbee, Liquid won around $10,86M.
#3 The International 2018 – $25.53M
Even though the differences in the prize pools between 2017 and 2018 weren’t as noticeable as before, this Dota 2 tournament had the highest reward in eSports history. With around a $25.53M reward, The International 8 was among the year’s most interesting events. In addition to the record prize pool, this was the first TI outside of the U.S. because it took place in Vancouver, Canada.
18 of the best teams in Dota 2 had to fight for the big reward, but in the end, OG won it. No one expected the team to do that because n0tails, OG’s captain, grouped up with a couple of new players after some of his former teammates joined other teams.
Against all odds, OG defeated the powerful PSG.LGD and won $11.23M.
#2 The International 2019 – $34.33M
Another year and another record-breaking The International from Dota 2. However, unlike the previous versions of this tournament, TI 9’s reward had an extra $9M, which means the event provided a total of $34.33M.
In addition to its record-breaking prize pool, TI 9 was special for two more reasons. The first one was that this was the first time the event took place in Shanghai, China. As for the second one, OG became the first-ever Dota 2 team to win two times the most important Dota 2 event. Moreover, the team achieved this in two consecutive years, which no one believed was possible.
OG played against Team Liquid in the finals and won $15.62M.
#1 The International 2021 – $40.02M
Some people wonder why The International 2020 is not on the list. The answer is simple – there was no such event because Valve postponed it due to the global pandemic. So, the event for 2020 took place in 2021.
Most eSports fans thought no other event would offer a higher prize pool than TI 9. However, The International 2021 was yet again on another level. The tournament took place in Bucharest, Romania, with a staggering $40.02M reward, the highest in eSport’s history.
Once again, 18 of the world’s best teams gave everything they got to win the big prize. Although fans expected PSG.LGD won the big event, Team Spirit, the Eastern European powerhouse, came on top. This granted them a total of $18.2M reward.
Future Events
The list mentioned above is accurate as of September 2022. With that said, The International 2022 (TI 11) will take place in October. No one knows how much will the prize pool go because it increases by the day. In fact, at the time of writing this, it is around $11.87M. Therefore, there will be changes to this list.
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