The eSport tournament that has offered the greatest overall prize pool as of May 2024 was ‘The International 2021’, with a total prize pool of over 40 million U.S. dollars. The most recent edition of the Dota 2 eSports tournament, ‘The International’, took place in Seattle in October 2023 and had a prize pool of around 3.38 million U.S. dollars. The previous iterations of ‘The International’ have consistently offered the greatest prize pool in each respective year and, as such, constitute the top seven eSports tournaments within this ranking.
The International
‘The International’ was originally organized as a promotional event for the release of Dota 2 and has subsequently been held each year with a growing prize pool, contributed primarily by crowdfunding sources. Players are offered the opportunity to purchase a form of battle pass known as a ‘Compendium’ that offers additional content within the game, with a quarter of the revenue generated through ‘Compendium’ sales directly contributing to the prize pool.
Online streaming platforms
The popularity of both eSports as an entity and, by extension, eSports events, is largely driven by the growing availability of online streaming platforms, such as Youtube and Twitch. This allows a variety of eSports organizations and personnel to offer a range of live commentary, retrospective analysis, match predictions, and player interviews, both independently and in cooperation with eSports events. Twitch, for example, has hosted live streams of the ‘League of Legends World Championship’ since 2012, and ‘The International’ since 2013, with multiple streams available in a range of different languages.
