In eSports, the tournament “The International” in the MOBA DOTA 2 (Steam) has long been regarded as the most lucrative tournament in gaming. The prize pool reached up to 40 million US dollars in 2021. But one of the winners in 2022 now states: It’s not quite that much. The prize money is not enough to become a millionaire, even though the statistics pages promise otherwise.
Why is it the most lucrative tournament in the world?
- Valve’s MOBA DOTA 2 hosts the world championship at the end of each year, “The International”.
- The special feature of the tournament is the huge sum that can be won: The prize money is partly financed through the revenue of DOTA 2 generated via a Battle Pass.
- “The International 10” in 2021 was considered the most lucrative tournament in eSports with a prize pool of 40 million US dollars. There was even more money than at the legendary lucrative Fortnite World Cup in 2019, where 30 million US dollars were distributed.
Page reports personal winnings per player at 1.7 million $
How much did the winner get in 2022? In 2022, the prize pool for DOTA 2 was significantly lower than in the previous year.
It is estimated that only about 18.93 million US dollars were disbursed because this year’s Battle Pass for DOTA 2 was not as attractive and only launched relatively shortly before the tournament started: Therefore, the prize pool in 2022 was only half the size of that in 2021.
According to the website Esports Earnings, the 5 winners of 2022 received a total of 8.518 million US dollars in prize money.
One might naively calculate: Well, 8.5 million US dollars divided by 5 players, that results in 1.7 million US dollars for each. This is also the amount that Esports Earnings has attributed to each player as prize money.
Less than a million $ left – So many fees and taxes
How much is it really? One of the winners in 2022, US player Sneyking, recently explained in a Twitch stream:
I won’t disclose the exact amount. But I received less than a million US dollars. The winnings look nice on paper, but so many fees and taxes are deducted, and in the end, not much is left.
Previous eSports winners have also had to experience that from such winnings, almost half can quickly be deducted:
Fortnite: World Cup runner-up has to pay about 850,000 $ in taxes – Reacts wonderfully
