Esports has been rapidly developing not only in Vietnam but around the world. From familiar titles that have been part of a decade of Esports growth to new names that attract young gamers. Along with improving quality and expanding reach, esports tournaments also draw the community with enormous prize pools.
Statistics from Esports Charts indicate that in 2019, esports tournaments awarded over 211 million USD across 4,000 tournaments. This number has significantly increased in the following years. Now, let’s take a look at the esports tournaments with the largest prize pools in the history of the sport!
The International 2021 (DOTA 2)
Since its debut in 2011, The International (TI) has always been at the top of the list for lucrative esports prize pools. The massive prizes at each TI are simply irresistible. The International 2021 held in Bucharest (Romania) leads the “golden” list with a total prize pool exceeding 40 million USD (approximately 994 billion VND).
At this tournament, Team Spirit emerged as the champion, taking home 18,208,300 USD in prize money (equivalent to 414 billion VND). Even the last-place team at this TI received a whopping 100,000 USD (about 2.4 billion VND).
Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019
This was the golden age of Fortnite Esports when Epic Games allocated a staggering 30 million USD for their game. The Fortnite World Cup 2019 featured two formats: Solo and Duos. Held at Arthur Ashe Stadium (New York) with a capacity of over 23,000 people, the tournament was thrilling, and an impressive story unfolded afterward. The 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf took home a 3 million USD prize (over 70 billion VND) after winning the solo competition.
Honor of Kings International Championship 2022
This year’s world championship for Honor of Kings also ranks among the tournaments with the largest prize pools in history. Specifically, the Honor of Kings International Championship 2022 offers a total prize pool of 10 million USD (240 billion VND). The tournament is expected to begin its group stage on December 3rd.
Previously, the Arena of Valor World Cup (AWC 2022) was supposed to combine the two titles Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor with a 10 million USD prize pool announced. However, there was no collaboration between these two names. Arena of Valor will hold its own international tournament, Arena of Valor Premier League (APL) 2022, on November 16th.
World Championship 2018
League of Legends (LoL) is regarded as one of the most influential games in the world. Therefore, the major international tournaments for this game receive significant attention, and the World Championship (CKTG) naturally also has a substantial prize pool. Notably, the 2018 CKTG had the largest total prize pool for this game with 6,450,000 USD (about 160 billion VND).
In this season, Invictus Gaming claimed the championship and received over 2.4 million USD in prize money. Additionally, The Shy and his teammates broke the absolute dominance of teams from the LCK (Korea). In recent CKTG seasons, Riot Games has not increased the prize pool compared to previous years and has fixed it at 2,225,000 USD.
PUBG Global Invitational.S 2021
The largest tournament of PUBG in 2021 held in Incheon (South Korea) set the record for the highest total prize pool in the game’s history to date. Consequently, the PUBG Corp tournament had a total prize pool exceeding 7 million USD (173 billion VND). The Soniqs (USA) team won the championship and took home 1,296,189 USD in prize money (approximately 32 billion VND).
Although PUBG no longer holds its number one position as it did during its golden era, the game is still widely loved around the globe. Additionally, the professional scene of PUBG has been heavily invested in over the past years.