Over the past few years, the gaming industry has been thriving. The Internet allowed everyone to gain access to almost everything. Online and offline video games have been at arm's reach, especially during the past few years when the world has shifted toward further digital dependency.
As MMORPG, MOBA, and other team-based games rose in popularity, their respective developers and publishers started holding official tournaments. With this, professional e-sport teams began to establish their presence around the globe. The continued support from game fans and massive sponsors allowed video game production houses to hold competitions with tremendous prize pools.
10 $2,340,000 - LoL World Championship (2019)
League of Legends
One of the most popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game, League of Legends, continue to dominate the gaming community. After their successful debut in 2009, they amassed 150 million registered players, with 117 million active players to this day.
League of Legends opened different opportunities for Riot. They started holding official tournaments in 2011, where the prize pool began at $100,000. To date, the 2019 tournament set the record for their biggest prize pool at $2.3 million. Massive brands and corporations like MasterCard, Alienware, Secretlab, Louis Vuitton, Oppo, RedBull, and AXE, sponsored the competition.
9 $2,500,000 - Halo World Championship (2016)
Halo 5: Guardians
The success of the whole Halo franchise stems from its effective execution of the military science fiction story, lore, and gameplay. After a successful 6-year run that started in the early 2000s, the first-person shooting game quickly became popular among avid gamers to join the gaming community.
A year after its debut, The Associates of Gaming Professionals immediately grabbed the opportunity to hold the first-ever Halo tournament with a prize pool of $4,420. In 2016, the prize pool increased drastically, reaching $2.5 Million dollars, the highest amount the game ever achieved.
8 $2,612,259 - Smite World Championship (2015)
SMITE
Using pre-existing lore and mythology makes Smite unique among the other games listed. The game offers teamwork development and knowledge about the gods and goddesses of different cultures. The third-person MOBA RPG made its debut back in March 2014 and is considered the oldest title of the genre.
Less than a year after its official release, Hi-Rez Studios officially held the first Smite tournament with what is, at the time, among the top 3 esports tournament with the highest prize pool at $2.6 million. The game maintained its popularity with the continued support of active players. This is a big deal considering that most games are usually short-lived.
7 $3,000,000 - Six Invitational (2020)
Rainbow Six Siege
Rainbow Six Siege offers precise and highly tactical first-person shooting gameplay. Since its release in 2015, the game has drastically improved and grown. In just a few years, they added more gameplay, new maps, better weapons, and different events. The game heavily focuses on environmental destruction and players and team cooperation. They amass 130,000 - 150,000 active players daily.
The first ever Rainbow Six Siege was held in 2017, and hosted and organized by ESL in association with Ubisoft. They presented a $3 million prize pool to their players, collected from a portion of the total revenue from Battle Pass purchases.
6 $4,210,000 - Overwatch League (2022)
Overwatch 2
Overwatch operated from 2016 until the release of Overwatch 2 this year. Despite being a pay-to-play game initially, developers decided to make the sequel a free-to-play game to attract more traffic. Like Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch 2 is a first-person shooter game with special skills and abilities.
The Overwatch League played an early build of Overwatch 2 during the 2022 tournament. With a whopping $4.21 million prize pool on the table, the game set its records compared to its first world cup in 2017, which started at $72,000.
5 $4,600,000 - Call of Duty League Championship (2020)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
The Call of Duty franchise remains a gaming giant as the most popular shooting game. Activision produced the first-person shooter game in 2003, known for setting the storylines during World War II. Over time, the military and war-themed series ventured out to different themes like the Cold War, sci-fi battlefields, zombies, and even aliens.
Call of Duty held its first-ever tournament in 2008, starting with a $15,000 prize pool. After gaining 250 million players in the Modern Warfare installment, the prize pool rose to an astonishing total of $4.6 million for the COD League Championship in 2020.
4 $7,068,071 - PUBG Global Invitational.S (2021)
PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS
Unlike other shooting games that fight in an arena or a single location, PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUND (PUBG) renders PVP gameplay on a large map. Known as a Battle Royale, a hundred players fight to be the last man or team standing to win. The game started in 2017 and was released by South Korean developer companies PUBG Corporation and Krafton.
PUBG tournaments are divided into separate events - solo, pairs, first-person POV pairs, and squads of four. In 2021, the American esports team Soniqs won the biggest prize pool of $7 million.
3 $7,742,070 - Honor of Kings World Champion Cup (2021)
Arena of Valor
Riot may be known for League of Legends, but they also released Arena of Valor in 2016. Unsurprisingly, the game gained popularity because of its focus on LoL-based lore and characters. The more accessible gameplay and mechanics make for faster-paced and equal entertainment as LoL.
Unlike its predecessor, Arena of Valor managed to hold its first World Champion Cup a year after its release. The Honor of Kings World Champion Cup 2021 ranks third in the history of the biggest esports prize pool, at $7.7 million. In just a short period of time, AoV showed the potential to garner 13 million daily active users.
2 $15,287,500 - Fortnite World Cup Finals (2019)
Fortnite
Fortnite gained popularity in the US just a few months after the release of PUBG in 2017. It follows the same battle royal gameplay, with a better and smoother animation style than its competitors. Epic Games and People Can Fly collaborated to develop and produce the game.
The game holds tournaments for different divisions independently. That means they each have separate prize pools for solo and duo players. In 2019, the Fortnite World Cup Finals for solo players had a prize pool of $15.3 million, making it the biggest esports prize for an individual player.
1 $40,018,400 - The International (2021)
Dota 2
Defense of the Ancients (Dota) walked so other MOBA games in the industry could run. Originally, World of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos inspired Dota creators to create a fan-made MOBA mod in 2003. After its rise to popularity, Valve took over its development and maintenance, continuing to its sequel, Dota 2.
Dota 2 held its first-ever international competition in 2011 with a prize pool of $1.6 million. Ten years later, it set a world record for esports tournaments worldwide in the overall prize pool list. The International 2021 holds the biggest prize pool in history after reaching the $40 million mark.