CS:GO is the second esport to surpass the $100 million total prize money milestone

It is no secret that Dota 2 has, by far, the biggest combined prize money from all tournaments, largely thanks to The International. Now, CS:GO has become the second esports title ever to reach the combined total prize money milestone of $100 million.

CS:GO’s prize money milestone

As of 14 September 2020, the combined total prize money of CS:GO sits at $100,877,738.95 from a whopping 5,188 tournaments. This is according to research data analyzed and published by SafeBettingSites.com. At the current Dollar to Rand exchange rate, that’s nearly R1.7 billion.

The report explains how CS:GO is the second esports title ever to achieve such a feat, while Dota 2 is still obviously the king of total prize money, with a mind-blowing $226,780,152.27 across 1,415 tournaments. Clearly, the reason why CS:GO managed to surpass the $100 million mark has to do with its high number of tournaments.

The largest-ever prize pool for a CS:GO tournament is only $1.6 million (WESG 2016), and we should have seen a bigger one take place this year in ESL One Rio Major, but this tournament has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the report, Fortnite is close to breaking that $100 million milestone as well.

The report explains:

“Epic Games’ Fortnite was third on the list, with the total prizes awarded amounting to $95.47 million across 610 tournaments. League of Legends took fourth place with $78.6 million awarded across 2,465 tournaments. Starcraft II sat at a distant fifth spot with a total of $33.5 million awarded across 5,891 tournaments.”

Interestingly enough, StarCraft II has seen 600 more tournaments take place than CS:GO. The scene is still going strong, especially in South Korea but the prize pools aren’t massive.

While we should always take these types of stats with a grain of salt, it is interesting to learn just how big the top esports titles have become, and how much prize money organizers have awarded players over the years.

Header image via Valve.