The International is the biggest annual Dota 2 tournament, akin to the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl. Its gaudy, record breaking prize pools are part of the reason why Dota 2 has paid out more in eSports prizes than any other eSport. Well today, for the sixth year in a row, Dota 2 has outdone itself.
With a prize pool of $20,772,353 (as of writing this), the Dota 2 International 2017 has just passed last year’s prize pool of $20,770,460, once again breaking the record for largest prize pool in eSports history – the record Dota 2 itself has set for the last six years.
In fact, Dota 2 has nine of the top 10 largest prize pools, with League of Legends‘ 2016 World Championship eclipsing the $5 million mark, good enough for fifth largest of all time, still a gigantic $15 million behind Dota 2, according to eSports Earnings.
The Dota 2 International 2017 prize pool had a brief period of slowed growth that put it slightly off pace from last year’s prize pool growth, leading some to wonder if it would ever break last year’s prize pool record. Valve fixed this by offering up a sale on one of the cosmetic items that contributes to the prize pool.
Valve put up a base prize pool of $1.6 million, meaning $19.1 million has been raised by Dota 2 players, as 25% of the proceeds from the game’s Battle Pass cosmetic item go to the prize pool. This means that 75% of it goes to Valve, meaning the PC gaming giant is taking home a cool $57.3 million against only a $1.6 million investment (not including the costs of putting on the event). Better yet, this prize pool is still growing and will continue to do so until the International starts on August 7.
