The Biggest Prizes in Esports History

The evolution of esports can be measured by various metrics, but none is as clear and shocking as money. In just over a decade, video game competitions have left the back rooms of stores and LAN houses to occupy Olympic stadiums, distributing checks that surpass those of centuries-old traditional events. The pursuit of the million-dollar prize has become the central engine of the industry, attracting investors, global sponsors, and transforming young talents into multimillionaires very quickly.

Our focus in today's article isn’t on regular leagues that pay monthly salaries, but on "super tournaments" that function as all-or-nothing events. In these, the performance of a single week can guarantee the retirement of an entire team. Below, we explore the championships that have redefined what it means to be well-paid in the digital world.

No discussion about money in gaming can begin without mentioning The International. The Dota 2 world championship has set a financial standard that will hardly be surpassed in the short term by any single game. Valve, the game's developer, created a funding mechanism that injected money from the community itself directly into the prize pool.

The peak of this model occurred in 2021, during the tenth edition of the event, known as TI10. The tournament distributed a total of $40 million. To give an idea of ​​the magnitude of this amount, the winning team, Team Spirit, took home $18.2 million. This amount exceeded the prize money paid to the winner of competitions such as the Libertadores Cup and even the Masters of Golf in Augusta.

The financial magic of The International lies in the "Battle Pass". The developer sets an initial base value, usually around $1.6 million, and adds 25% of all sales of cosmetic items related to the tournament to the final prize pool. This transformed the event into an annual demonstration of the economic power of the Dota 2 player base, holding the world record for the largest single prize pool for several consecutive years.

While Dota 2 grew organically with fan money, a new force emerged in the Middle East, determined to buy the top spot with state capital. Saudi Arabia entered the scene with the Gamers8 festival, held in Riyadh, with the explicit goal of hosting the most lucrative event on the planet.

In 2023, Gamers8 fulfilled its promise by offering a combined total prize pool of $45 million. Unlike The International, which focuses on a single game, the Saudi event distributed this fortune among several game types: Fortnite, Tekken 7, FIFA 23, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Rainbow Six, Dota 2, R1, StarCraft 2, Street Fighter 6, CS:GO, and Rocket League. The financial highlight was the Dota 2 tournament within the festival, the Riyadh Masters, which alone offered $15 million.

This capital injection is part of a larger strategy by the country to become a global entertainment and tourism hub. The success of Gamers8 paved the way for the creation of the newly famous "Esports World Cup", ensuring that Riyadh remains the ultimate destination for those seeking the biggest paychecks in the industry for years to come.

The 2019 Fortnite World Cup remains one of the most surreal moments in gaming financial history. Epic Games allocated $100 million to competitions that year, culminating in a final event in New York with a $30 million prize pool.

The key difference was the individual prize distribution. Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf, the winner of the solo category, took home $3 million. At the time, this amount was greater than the prize paid to the winner of Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. Epic Games funded the entire amount, without relying on crowdfunding, as an aggressive marketing strategy to solidify Fortnite at the top of pop culture.

Although Epic changed its strategy in subsequent years to divide the prize money across several smaller regional competitions – the FNCS series – the 2019 event still ranks highly. It proved that a single weekend of competition could transform a teenager into one of the richest people in the sport, without the need for a long prior career.

The West often underestimates the financial power of mobile games, but the numbers from the Honor of Kings International Championship (KIC) tell a different story. The MOBA from TiMi Studio Group, immensely popular in China, generates figures that leave most PC games behind.

The 2023 edition of KIC offered a prize pool of approximately $10 million – about 69 million yuan. The scale of this investment reflects the massive player base in Asia. While in the West esports still struggles for profitability in some sectors, the Honor of Kings ecosystem already operates with profit margins and advertising investments that support eight-figure prize pools.

This tournament is definitive proof that hardware no longer dictates financial prestige. Mobile competitions have reached the top of the esports economic pyramid, competing on equal footing with traditional titles established decades ago in the computer market.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds pioneered the Battle Royale genre and maintained its financial relevance through the PUBG Global Invitational.S (PGI.S). The 2021 edition stood out by using a clever hybrid model to inflate its prize pool.

The organization guaranteed a minimum prize pool, but the sale of in-game items boosted the total to over $7 million. The tournament format, which lasted several weeks, allowed the money to accumulate progressively. The winning team, Susquehanna Soniqs, took home almost $1.3 million.

Although the game has lost some of its media popularity to newer competitors, its competitive structure remains one of the most profitable for professional players dedicated to the sport.

The landscape of major prize pools in esports demonstrates how developers, communities, and even nations compete to see who can write the biggest check using various strategies. The International proved the power of crowdfunding, the Fortnite World Cup showed the strength of direct corporate investment, and the events in Riyadh ushered in the era of almost unlimited state capital.

These tournaments enrich the winners and validate the profession of digital athlete to the world. As long as there is public interest and market competition among major publishers, the trend is that these records will continue to be challenged, maintaining esports as one of the most lucrative careers of the 21st century for the competitive elite.