The highest eSports awards in 2021

2021 may have seen a drop in live viewership compared to previous years, but the big prizes are continuing to add up. Across many esports platforms, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on some of the best players and teams to contend with this year alone.

Here are the top five prize pools in eSports in 2021, per Esports Chart.

Dota 2‘s The International 10 (TI10) – $40,018,195

This should come as no surprise to any longtime e-sports fan, but Dota 2The International’s annual The International once again tops the list of e-sports awards. For the second year in a row (excluding 2020 without TI), The International set a new record for the biggest esports prize pool of all time, surpassing the $34.3 million mark set by TI9 established in 2019.

Four of the top five eSports awards of all time are the four most recent TIs, with 2019 Fortnite The World Cup ranked third overall, according to Esports Charts. Much of this huge amount comes from TI Battle Pass sales, as 25% of sales profits go directly to the prize pool. To put in context the popularity of these tickets, the 2021 pool starts at just $1.6 million, and over $38.4 million was added from Battle Pass sales alone.

PUBG Global Invitational.S 2021 – 7,056,789 USD

Like TI, PUBG Global Invitational.S was temporarily closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to return in 2021 in a record way. By passing the $7 million mark, PUBG Global Invitational.S 2021 is the biggest esports award ever outside of TI or 2019 Fortnite World Cup.

The PUBG The corporation also removed a page from TI’s book by including 30% of the PGI.S 2021 category revenue in the prize pool. This doubles the original prize pool of $3.5 million.

The Overwatch League Qualifiers 2021 – $3,200,000

The Overwatch The knockout stages of League 2021 have been set to take place offline at Esports Stadium in Arlington, TX. However, those plans had to change due to COVID, so Western teams went to Hawaii to play against Eastern teams with better ping. Even with this less-than-ideal situation, OWL still offers a whopping $3.2 million prize pool.

This is the second largest Overwatch Total league prizes, only a few hundred thousand dollars less than in 2019 Overwatch Tournament knockout. The Shanghai Dragons, once popular with a 0-40 scoreline in their first season, won the fourth season playoffs, taking home $1.5 million, the biggest first-place prize in history. OWL history.

Six Invitational 2021 – 3,000,000 USD

The 2021 iteration of what really is the world championship Rainbox Six Siege has seen a credible display of dominance from the Brazilian region. Teams from Brazil took first, second, third and fifth places to take home the majority of the $3 million prize pool, with NiP claiming a lion’s share of $1 million.

The event, commonly referred to as SI, was noted from TI when Ubisoft sold the Road to SI 2021 Battle Pass. However, the prize pool could be higher, but Ubisoft sets a maximum of $3 million. Any proceeds in excess of $3 million will be “redistributed to support Rainbow Six Sixth year eSports scene,” according to Ubisoft.

League of Legends Worlds 2021 – $2,225,000

One of the most watched annual e-sports events has had a string of smaller awards in recent years, but is 2021 League of Legends The World Championship, also known simply as the World Finals, still generates a $2.25 million prize pool. This number is equal to Worlds in 2020 and 2019.

Riot has always announced an initial total of $2.25 million, but for Worlds 2018 and earlier, they added a percentage of the revenue from Championship skins. In 2018, the total prize pool ended at $6.45 million, and they also collected $4.5 million in 2016 and 2017.

Worlds 2021 is the most watched eSports event of all time, with over 174 million hours watched and an all-time high viewership of over four million during the finals.

PGL Stockholm CS GO Main – $2,000,000

After a two-year hiatus, CS GO The Major makes a grand comeback with PGL Stockholm — and with it, the biggest CS GO The total prize pool used to be 2 million dollars. Most Majors in recent history have had a $1 million prize pool, but the first Major in over two years clearly needed some extra cash. It’s also the most viewed CS GO event in history, with over 71 million hours watched and a peak of more than 2.7 million viewers in the grand finale.

With the Main view card in addition to the team/player stickers, there are many items that can be purchased with the revenue going directly to the player. These purchases can also significantly increase the prize pool if a portion of the revenue is added to the total prize pool.