It’s no secret that eSports are getting bigger every year. In 2020, revenue from the industry surpassed the $1 billion mark, and this figure is going to rise exponentially over the next decade. The way things are heading, competitive gaming could easily take over from traditional sports at some point in the future in terms of the money involved.
Now, it’s a race to see which particular offshoot of the eSports industry is the most lucrative. There are certainly some games offering much higher prize money to players than others.
Dota 2
As it stands, the richest game in the eSports industry is Dota 2, which offers more than $40 million in prize money each year. The annual Dota 2 tournament, The International, has been the biggest eSports event for many years and has frequently topped the spending charts. Indeed, in 2018 the prize pool at the world-renowned competition was $25.53 million. In comparison, the League of Legends 2018 World Championship had a prize fund of $6.45 million to dish out to players.
One of the reasons why there is so much money in Dota 2 is because it attracts a high number of viewers and has some of the best teams in the world playing it. Team Liquid is probably the best known Dota 2 outfit, and they have claimed a total of $24 million in various eSports. Teams like this make attractive betting options, and there is an increasing amount of betting brands offering odds on this fairly new commodity across the world, including emerging iGaming markets such as India. In fact, this is a global phenomenon, with eSports betting sites in India having offers for new players demonstrating this rise in popularity.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
CS:GO is one of the longest-running eSports in the world alongside StarCraft and Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Of the three games, the former is the most lucrative and currently stands in second place in the list of eSports with the biggest pay-outs. The prize money for the first-person shooter regularly exceeds $22 million, and there is a highly competitive league that is getting stronger every year.
The ESL Pro League was founded in 2015 and is one of the major professional leagues in eSports. There are 24 teams involved across four regions of the world including Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Because the prize money keeps rising each year, and with viewer numbers increasing, the revenue earned from CS:GO is going to boom.
Fortnite
Fortnite is one of the newest kids on the block in the growing eSports industry, but the battle royale epic has quickly become one of the most popular options. The game was first released in 2017, and by 2018 it was the third most lucrative title in the competitive gaming scene with a prize pool of roughly $19 million. This suggests that it could surpass the others mentioned in this list in the next few years if Epic Games keeps freshening it up with new updates.
These are some of the games with the highest prize pools in the eSports industry, and it seems as though they are going to be battling for supremacy over the next decade.