Esports Charts: big money esports tournaments on the rise as world returned to normalcy following pandemic

Big money tournaments are slowly increasing as the world rose from the pandemic and amid the ongoing “esports winter”, based on data from esports statistics provider Esports Charts.

Based on Esports Charts data from 2018 to 2023, the number of million-dollar esports tournaments has increased by 41%. The biggest jump was from 2018’s 36 to 2023’s 51.

There were also 89 tournaments with US$500,000-US$1,000,000 prize pools, based on Esports Charts’ research.

For a long time, the most lucrative tournaments in the industry remained The International series for Dota 2. In 2021 alone, the prize pool of The International 2021 amounted to just over $40M — the highest figure among all esports games based on Esports Charts’ data.

The statistics provider also mentioned that in the post-pandemic years from 2022-2023, Saudi Arabia was helping fuel the prize pool growth spurt.

“In 2022-2023, the number of major tournaments continued to grow, with Saudi Arabia playing a significant role. The local esports scene began to develop rapidly, and Riyadh was unofficially dubbed the new capital of digital entertainment. Gamers8 festival was launched in Saudi Arabia, featuring numerous major tournaments in various disciplines: the total prize pool of all Gamers8 events in 2023 amounted to $45M. Of these, only the Riyadh Masters had a prize pool of $15M. In total, eight tournaments with prizes of $1M and above were held within Gamers8 in 2023,” Esports Charts noted in its report.

They also added that in 2018-2019, Dota 2 and Fortnite had the most million-dollar tournaments. The only titles that went head-to-head during that time were CS:GO Majors and the League of Legends World Championships, could boast such sums. The number of tournaments with prize pools ranging from $500K to $1M also increased, during the period, with highs noting as 40%.

This growth follows a time of turbulence as the coronavirus pandemic took a toll on esports competition and live, on-site events, as evidenced in the drop of tourneys with big sums.

In 2020, only 16 tournaments had at least US$1 million and above, while only 36 tourneys with a US$500k to US$1 million were held.

“During this challenging period, the industry had to quickly adapt to the circumstances — instead of major international tournaments, organizers began hosting numerous local online championships in individual countries or regions. For example, instead of the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Major five regional tournaments were held. Tournaments such as Dota Summit, OGA Dota PIT, and other series also transitioned to the online format. Many new online leagues appeared in the discipline, especially in Eastern Europe — local bookmakers began actively investing in esports projects, as traditional sports were also “on hold” due to the coronavirus at the time, Esports Charts noted.

In 2024, these figures might even boost as the Esports World Cup alone have several multimillion-dollar tourneys incoming. The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang event alone commands a US$3 million prize pool – the biggest in the history of the esport.