Are Esports Prize Pools Where They Need to Be?

Esports fans that have been around for a longer period of time will remember the days as close as a decade ago where even the biggest often weren’t able to offer more than a few thousand dollars for the event winners – DreamHack back in 2010, for example, had offered up to a $15,000 prize for first place across a number of the biggest games at the time like StarCraft 2 and CS:S. Now it’s all too common to see $1 million as a baseline for a major event and going up drastically for others, but is this figure where it needs to be?

For some the answer may be a little more nuanced than a yes or a no – whilst the six-figure prize gets broken down amongst different teams, multiple events are hosted throughout the year which compound this figure a little, looking at the next CSGO major for example as fans prepare to bet on IEM Katowice as the first big major esports event of the year, and one of four $1 million prize pool events for the sport. But when looking at others, such as DotA2 which this year was able to raise over $40 million, or the Fortnite World Cup back in 2019 which had a $30 million prize on offer, the one million certainly does look to pale in comparison.

Given this isn’t the only money in esports now, too, it seems less of an issue – player salaries have grown massively and the biggest stars have all been reported to earn six figures depending on the game they’re playing, sponsorship and investment have only increased too to the point where prize money for some has become more symbolic, so whilst the big prize fund certainly looks appealing to the up and coming players, it’s the sponsors and salaries that have made the difference. 

Ultimately, it’s a tough question to answer in the scheme of things – the big numbers look very appealing to the casual fan who see’s $40 million and is wowed by such a huge prize, and different games that only have a limited circuit benefit from the huge prize too, but the prize pools certainly have much less of an impact on players and organisations alike than they once did. It also seems negligible compared to some other sporting events around the world too – Premier League football for example as teams back in 2018-19 could get an estimated $150m at the end of the year, although this also includes broadcasting earnings which aren’t considered for esports.

Prize pools will likely change as investment and sponsorship increases, but whether or not this will have a dramatic impact on the outlook of a singular event or whether or not it will spur diversity in the competitive scene is yet to be seen, but $40 million is certainly nothing to turn the nose up at.