The Dota 2 community has pulled together yet again to give The International 2018 the biggest prize pool in the history of esports.
Currently sitting at over $24,800,000, TI8’s prize pool looks set to break the $25 million mark within the next few days.
The record for the biggest prize pool in any esports game was previously held by The International 2017, which boasted a staggering $24,687,919, and continues Dota 2’s run of breaking the record every year.
600https://twitter.com/wykrhm/status/1031356712425418752
In fact, Dota 2 now holds the record for the top five biggest esports events with the 2016, 2015 and 2014 installments of the competition rounding out that list.
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To put things into perspective, The International 2014 (the fifth biggest esports prize pool) featured a prize pool of just under $11 million and the 2016 League of Legends World Championship, which is in sixth place, had just over $5 million.
The International is Dota 2’s world championship and every year Valve sets up a compendium or battle pass that allows players and fans to contribute to the prize pool, with 25% of all sales going directly towards the total.
As of Monday, August 20, those purchases and in-game sales mean that this year’s winning team will secure themselves over $10,900,000.
Even more staggering is the fact that there are still a few more days of crowdfunding left to go, so breaking the $25 million mark seems to be almost guaranteed. You can keep up with the prize pool by looking at this tracker online.