The graph presents the leading eSports tournaments worldwide as of October 2018, ranked by overall prize pool. As of the measured period, The International 2018, which took place in Canada in August 2018 and featured DOTA 2, ranked first, with a total prize pool of 25.53 million U.S. dollars.
eSports prize pool – additional information
The entire eSports market is expected to grow over the coming years. From an estimated 655 million U.S. dollars in 2017, worldwide revenues are projected to increase to 1.65 billion in 2021. Looking at the latest regional profitability data, Asia was considered to be generating the lion’s share of the revenues in 2017, followed by North America with its 392 million U.S. dollar eSports market.
While the International 2017 was the leading tournament of 2017 based on the overall prize pool, the combined prize pools for all eSports events that year reached 121.1 million U.S. dollars worldwide. The fact that only a year earlier the prize pools were reported 25 million less than that amount, illustrates the increasing worth and significance of this segment of the gaming industry. What is more, in 2017 it was calculated that DOTA 2, the official game of The International championships, accounted for 34.3 percent of the total eSports prize money that year.
That same year, 10.84 percent of the eSports prize pools went to League of Legends. In terms of dollar value, League of Legends’ total prize pool in 2017 amounted to 12.02 million U.S. dollars. While professional League of Legends' players compete via a variety of different tournaments, one of the most recognized tournaments is The World Championship. In fact, the 2016 World Championship was the second most watched eSports event of all time, attracting 43 million unique viewers worldwide.
