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Dota 2's The International Generates the Largest Esports Prize Pool

Sam Schwartzstein · State of the Union: DAOing the X Games | Where It Happens · Dec 14, 2021 · at 23:55

Former XFL innovation director Sam Schwartzstein discusses how crowdfunding mechanisms and revenue splits drive massive tournament prize pools.

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“The international for Dota two, they're a big tournament. They are, they do a really good job integrating units bought in the e-sports space in Dota gets a revenue split with the championship, the winner. So they're the largest prize pool in e-sports, not even the biggest game, but they can get up to eleven million dollars.”

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The claim, plainly

Dota 2's tournament The International has the largest prize pool in esports via in-game purchase revenue splits, reaching at least $11 million.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

As of December 2021, Dota 2's annual championship, The International, held the record for the largest prize pool in esports history. The prize pool is funded by a base contribution from Valve alongside a 25% revenue split from in-game Battle Pass and Compendium purchases. The tournament exceeded the $11 million mark starting with The International 2015 ($18.4 million) and reached over $40.0 million by October 2021.

Valve and tournament databases record that The International surpassed $11 million in 2015 ($18,429,613) and reached $40,018,195 at The International 2021 (TI10).
According to Esports Earnings and Liquipedia, The International 2021 represented the largest prize pool in esports history as of December 2021.
The prize pool was directly augmented via an in-game purchase revenue split, with 25% of all Compendium/Battle Pass sales added to the baseline prize pool.

Checked against

[1] liquipedia.net [2] esportsheaven.com [3] gosugamers.net [4] esportsearnings.com [5] wikipedia.org [6] esportsearnings.com [7] fandom.com [8] dota2.com

The International 10 prize pool 2021 total Esports Earnings top tournament prize pools December 2021 The International The International prize pool history Dota 2 battle pass revenue split

assessed as of 2026-09-02

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Mentioned

Dota 2 The International

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Dota 2's The International Generates the Largest Esports Prize Pool

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