The International 2019 Prize Pool Surpasses TI 8’s
We’re still more than six weeks away from The International 2019 and the prize pool has already reached a phenomenal new height. Last year, people were convinced that Dota 2 had reached its peak and that the game would surely start to go downhill from there. Instead, the player base grew and became more active. And as a result, we now have the largest prize pool in the history of esports for The International 2019, with almost two months left to go.
Previous TI Prize Pools
The International has an impressive history in terms of prize pools. Practically, with every edition, the tournament broke the last esports record, held by… well, itself. Here’s a short recap of this.
- TI 1: $1.6 million
- TI 2: $1.6 million
- TI 3: $2.8 million
- TI 4: $10.9 million
- TI 5: $18.4 million
- TI 6: $20.7 million
- TI 7: $24.7 million
- TI 8: $25.5 million
- TI 9: $25.6 million (currently)
As you can see, Dota 2 has been very fortunate throughout the years. A wise strategy by Valve combined with a passionate community has resulted in a massive prize pool and a lot of popularity for this beautiful esport, even though its enormous difficulty makes it less appealing than other titles.
Of course, it may also be a marketing problem, given the fact that League of Legends is almost as complex and yet it has a player base 10 times as large. While Dota 2 has around 10 million active players, LoL has 100 million.
The International 2019 Prize Pool Prediction
At this rate, the TI 9 prize pool will almost certainly surpass the $30 million mark by the time the tournament begins. With the way in which this prize pool is usually split, this practically means that the winning team will get over $13 million. While for many traditional sports this amount is not that impressive, for what used to be just computer games a decade ago, it definitely is.
The TI 9 Prize Pool Put Into Perspective
If The International 2019 will have a prize pool of over $30 million, and the chances are very high for this to happen, this will be a landmark for the entire industry and a guarantee that esports is here to not only stay, but continue to grow and prosper. Last year, the one billion dollar mark was passed at the industry level.
And in terms of its audience, esports reaches over 400 million people who either play or watch electronic sports relatively frequently. Many of them engage in both activities, as the games are very fun not only to play, but also watch. Especially when you know the pro players involved in the matches and understand the action well.
To put things into perspective and help you get a better understanding of what a $30 million prize pool would mean for a single esports event, consider the fact that the NBA Finals had a prize pool of $22 million in 2019. Or, if you know about Tennis, the 2018 US Open prize pool was $50 million – for all of the competitions combined. If we only take in account only the men’s singles or the women’s singles, that number goes down to just $20.5 million.
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