eSports: The seven biggest titles in terms of prize money in 2021

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Money is not everything – but it is a widely accepted measuring tool for all sorts of things. The size of annual prize pools says something about how popular an eSport is and how well its competitive scene is doing. 2021 was – again – a crazy year for competitive gaming, as it was for many other sports. Most of the arenas remained empty, and it wasn’t until the end of the year that the organizers managed to fill the halls and stadiums again. However, the exchanges with prize money were as full as ever. Which eSport distributed the most money to its athletes in 2021?

EDward Gaming won the League of Legends World Championship in 2021.

7. League of Legends

Around 6.4 million euros

Surely you are now thinking that this must be a mistake. “League of Legends” (LoL) in seventh place? They have enough money to do a Netflix anime! But Riot Games has a slightly different philosophy than most of the other publishers on this list. Given that LoL is one of the leading eSports titles in the world, the prize money is actually comparatively modest. The world champion team EDward Gaming received “only” around 442,000 euros for its success.

This is how China celebrated the Worlds victory

For this, professionals in the MOBA title get high salaries from their teams, which in turn can secure their own income through the leagues of the game. Riot Games wants to create an ecosystem that is as healthy as possible for the organizations and athletes in the scene. Millions in prize money always land in the headlines, but prize pools that are only high for a few top teams and leave nothing for the rest are dangerous for a scene in the long term.

6. Fortnite

Around 8.4 million euros

Some publishers see eSports primarily as a marketing tool. In “Fortnite” the game itself is the marketing tool. ESports is not really high on the list of priorities at Epic Games. The developer jumped considerable prize money in 2021, which seems somehow small in view of the sheer enormousness of “Fortnite”, and he repeatedly ties the major events of its own eSport scene similar to the concerts of big stars in the course of virtual public viewing events larger structure of the game.

Victory crowns in Chapter 3

Epic Games is deliberately redesigning the title more and more from a game to its own platform. Certainly eSport has a place on this huge platform somewhere, but the focus is clearly not on the competitive aspect, which clearly distinguishes “Fortnite” from the rest of this list. The eSport scene of “Fortnite” is like an appendage, a small cog in a huge machine that is supposed to generate attention and supports eSport because it is trendy. The latest superhero crossover event, where users can buy a virtual costume, is far more relevant for the publisher and the game’s fan base than providing and expanding competitive structures, balancing high-level games or ensuring that the matches are more viewer-friendly.

5. Arena of Valor

Around 10.8 million euros

If you’ve never heard of any game on this list, it’s probably Arena of Valor (AoV) – in fact, the title isn’t particularly popular or even known in the West. AoV is similar to “League of Legends” a MOBA title, but it is played on mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch. The main market for the game is East Asia, especially in China and Taiwan, it is extremely popular. It was developed by TiMi, the maker of the “Pokémon UNITE” based on the same concept, which was released worldwide in 2021.

AoV is so popular in Asia that it has already made a guest appearance several times at pan-Asian sports competitions as a demonstration discipline for eSports – in 2023 it will be present in this role at the “Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games”. The 11 million euros in prize money from this year are only a temporary high point: in 2022, the AoV World Championship will be merged with that of the “Honor of Kings”, the original Chinese version of this international offshoot – which almost doubles the annual prize pool. The professionals should be happy.

3rd & 4th PUBG and PUBG Mobile

Around 14 million euros and 12.7 million euros

The game, which kicked off the hype surrounding the battle royale genre that has continued to this day, is still popular with fans all over the world and now has a well-established eSports scene – in the PC version as well as the version for Smartphones, which is one of the most popular apps in many Asian countries. In India there were even big public debates in 2020 because the government “PUBG Mobile” relied on a list of blocked applications from the neighboring country in the wake of the political conflict with China (the Tencent group is involved in the mobile battle royale). (The popular title is now playable again).

Interestingly, the competitive mode of the game sends quintets of allied players into the field – the shooter follows the recipe for success of “CS: GO” and the MOBA titles, although it was originally based on survival alone. “PUBG” has one of the most international scenes in eSports when it comes to top teams – on a good day, any large region can provide the best team in the world, which is not a matter of course when you consider the long dominance of South Korea in “League of Legends” “or” StarCraft “thinks.
A player makes a gesture towards the camera.

NAVI and “s1imple” have ushered in a new era in “CS: GO” 2021.

2. CS: GO

Around 18.5 million euros

Of course, “CS: GO” should not be missing on this list: The king of competitive shooters started the “reopening” of stadiums in 2021 and filled arenas in Northern Europe to commemorate better times. Not that the current era is bad for the pros of the title. Competitions take place practically all the time in “CS: GO” and Valve’s loose handling of the scene enables independent tournament organizers to hold competitions in the first person shooter themselves. On the one hand, this can be confusing, but on the other hand it also ensures that a tournament is practically always running somewhere in “CS: GO”. It is very likely that the prize money indicated above has increased while you are reading this paragraph.

Tips and tricks to become the shooter king

Valve is in stark contrast to Riot Games, which controls practically the entire eSports scenes of its titles itself. It has been fascinating over the years to observe the various advantages and disadvantages of these approaches – a study that is ongoing.

1. Dota 2

Around 41 million euros

In the meantime every news agency has a standard article in its drawer that the next edition of The International, the world championship of “Dota 2”, has set a new record in prize money. That’s not because of Valve’s generosity. Take the latest edition of the tournament: the publisher invested around 1.4 million euros itself, with the remaining almost 34 million euros coming from the fans. They can top up the prize pool of the world championship with an annual battle pass to the tournament.

Valve itself earned a golden nose with it, because only a small part of the revenue from this Battle Pass actually goes into the prize pool. Year after year, fans put more money into the game and the prize pool grows. However, it doesn’t really bother anyone that Valve pocketed a large part of the money – after all, the developer fills the compendium with content every year.

A gold shield, the logo of The International 10.

“Dota” World Championships: The International sets fresh price money records every year.

As you can see, The International makes up a huge chunk of the total prize pool for the year. Again, Valve is at the other extreme with Riot Games. This dynamic makes headlines and literally turns the winners of the tournament into millionaires in one day, but on “Dota 2” practically the entire scene is geared towards The International. To put it bluntly: Anyone who does not compete there threatens to disappear into oblivion. Valve is working on a better foundation for the scene, but more than other eSports, “Dota 2” will remain a discipline for the time being, in which only the really big fish can eat properly.



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