Dota 2 – Record prize money for The International 2019

Every year Dota 2 makes headlines in many ways for his big tournament “The International”. The most important thing is the total prize money for the competition, which has just set new records for this year’s edition.

The International 2019, the big Dota 2 competition, which ends every year the professional season of the game, has already gone down in the history of eSports before its launch. This has been more or less the case for some years now, but with each edition, it really only increases: the competition’s prize money reaches record levels every year, and this year is no exception.

The competition only takes place in August – from 16th to 18th August the group stages, then from 20th to 25th August the knockout stage at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai. Almost a month and a half before the first meeting of The International 2019, the competition has already collected more than 25,000,000 dollars in donations. This even exceeds the previous year’s record of 25,532,177 US dollars. The numbers are breathtaking.

Even explanations, simple as they may be, can hardly justify such amounts. And yet Valve’s system, the development studio behind Dota 2, is quite simple and above all devilishly efficient. Content related to the game (e.g. additional or aesthetic content) is offered to players in the community for a different amount depending on which level of the exclusive Battle Pass they want to buy. 25% of the revenue goes automatically into the pot.

Visible to all, this then represents an innocent challenge to the community, which is delighted to let the amount swell a little more each day while at the same time using visible items in the game. The 2019 Battle Pass for The International has been available in the store since 7th May, and various variations and marketing activities have helped increase overall TI9 revenue. To give an idea of the current proportions, the amounts generated this year are more than $6 million higher than last year at this time…. And it’s not over yet.