It was back in 1997 when they gave the first prize for esports ever. That first prize went to Dennis Fong "Thresh" when he won a red Ferrari from John Carmac. Then in 2006, we have Johan Quick "Toxjq" who won a Rolex in the Quake 4 WSVG championship. Back then, those prizes were surely remarkable. But in comparison with today's prizes, they are just nothing. With today prizes pools, the players could often actually retire after winning one.
One of the main reason for these huge prizes is the developer has been increasing the size of the pool by offering unique items to the player bases in exchange for contributing the pool. It is kinda a crowdfunding campaign, I guess. At this moment, we have the developers of CS: GO and Dota 2 are among the best in the users of this model. For example, The International, a Dota 2 event thanks to that model has grown tremendously in the past years.
Here we have the list of the biggest prize pools per Esports tournament. However, with a quick glance, you could see LoL and Dota 2 would take up most of the spots.
25.5 million dollars - The 8th International
It is the world Dota 2 championship of Valve that takes place every year. It has taken the title of the biggest prize pools in the industry for eight years already. Back in 2011-2012, it only offered a "small" prize of 1.6 million dollars. But ever since 2013, it has been the best example of a successful crowdfunding prize pool in the history of esports.
In the latest event, The 8th International, it has reached the total number of 25.5 million dollars. Then the winner of the event, OG took home a prize of 11.2 million dollars for their victory.
6.4 million dollars- 2018 LoL World Championship
Follow the crowdfunding model, Riot Games has allowed LoL fans to contribute to the event's prize pool through in-game purchase since 2017. Then just one year after that, its prize pool has reached the mark of 6.4 million dollars in total. This prize makes the event become the event with the biggest prize money in the history of LoL.
In the end, Invictus Gaming from China took home the prize of 2.4 million dollars after the 3-0 finals vs Fanatic of Europe.
4 million dollars - Fortnite Clubs Standings: Fall Skirmish Series
The battle royale game Fornite has been on the fast track for the past years. To accompany the success of this amazing battle royale game, the publisher Epic Games has held a 100 million dollars prize esports tournament for the very first year of the game competitive playing. They have used a big part of that money for the 4 million dollars Series.
Moreover, after the 28th of July - World Cup, Fornite will come back with a bigger event of 30 million dollars.
3 million dollars - Asia Championship of Dota 2
This event is the precursor for the Major circuit of Dota 2. In fact, with the number of 3,057,000 dollars, this event only comes after before Valve Majors by a small margin of 57,000 dollars. They held this event in Shanghai, China. In the end, the newly-assembled team of Evil Geniuses took home the prize and the championship title. It was a one-sided finals 3-0 vs Vici Gaming.
3 million dollars - Valve Majors of Dota 2
Even though the main structure of the Valve Majors has evolved a lot since its start in 2015, the prize pool was 3 million dollars for the two first majors. Because of the substance of that prize pools, this event has become one of the biggest tournaments in the competitive circuit of Dota 2. Lots of teams have participated in the major before, but the most significant one is OG with 4 wins under their belt already.
2.5 million dollars - Halo 2016 World Championship
This championship has a total prize pool of 2.5 million dollars which was sponsored by Microsoft Studios. They got all the Halo elites over the world to participate in this event. In the end, CLG was the winner with a prize of 1 million dollars.
2 million dollars - CoD 2016 World League
Back in 2016, Activision went all out and doubled the prize pool for the CoD World League. In fact, after this tournament, no other event of CoD has surpassed it yet in term of the prize pool. Yet, it is the only CoD entry on our list.
1.7 million dollars - Mid-Season Invitational of 2017
It was the 3rd edition of the LoL Mid-Season Invitational. It started small with just the initial prize pool of 250,000 dollars back in 2015. But then thanks to skin sales, the prize pool of this event has risen to 1.6 million dollars.
1.6 million dollars - Fortnite Summer Skirmish Series
In total, they have awarded over 1.6 million dollars for the top participants of this tournament. And against the odd, Austin Etue "Morgausse" became the winner and got 250,000 dollars.
And we have also need to mention the biggest prize pools in history:
10) 3 million dollars - Dota 2 Asia Championship of 2015
9) 4 million dollars - Clubs Standings: Fall Skirmish Series
8) 4.9 million dollars - LoL World Championship of 2017
7) 5 million dollars - LoL World Championship of 2016
6) 6.4 million dollars - LoL World Championship of 2018
5) 10.9 million dollars - The International 4
4) 18.4 million dollars - The International 5
3) 20.4 million dollars - The International 6
2) 24.6 million dollars - The International 7
1) 25.5 million dollars - The International 8
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