The eSports game with the greatest tournament prize pool in 2023 was Dota 2, recording a cumulative prize pool valued at 30.82 million U.S. dollars. This cumulative prize pool is significantly higher of the runner up, Arena of Valor, which had a cumulative prize pool of 21.22 million U.S. dollars during this period.
Dota 2
Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena video game (MOBA) developed by Valve Software as a follow-up to 'Defense of the Ancients,' a community-created mod for the game 'Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'
In an effort to grow the popularity of DOTA 2 amongst ‘Defense of the Ancients’ players and to further promote the release of DOTA 2, the development company invited 16 of the world’s leading ‘Defense of the Ancients’ players to participate in a ‘DOTA 2’ tournament, an event that would eventually be held annually. It is this annual event, now referred to as ‘The International’, that offers such a substantial tournament prize pool and results in DOTA 2 consistently offering the greatest cumulative prize pool of any eSports game.
eSports overview
Whilst competitions have long since been a component of the video gaming industry, it wasn’t until relatively recently that eSports as a professional form of competitive video game play grew in popularity, with video game developers often organizing and funding many of the most popular eSport tournaments, which involve games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, Valorant, Overwatch, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros., and StarCraft. These tournaments often incorporate either multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), combat, card, battle royale, and real-time strategy (RTS) games. The most prominent types of video games associated with eSport tournaments include multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), fighting, card, battle royale and real-time strategy (RTS) games.
