- The constant linear growth of The International’s prize pool has finally stopped
- This year’s TI did not even manage to reach 50% of last year’s prize pool
- The low interest in TI11’s Battle Pass is one of the main reasons for this
Dota 2’s The International has always broken its own record for the biggest prize pool in esports, until this year.
TI11’s Prize Pool Ends a Decade-Long Streak
With the conclusion of Dota 2’s The International 11 and Tundra Esports lifting the trophy above their heads, comes the conclusion of Part I of the 2022 Dota 2 Battle Pass. Players will now get access to a revamped Diretide event, new items, and more content that was previously locked. But this also marks the end of a historical streak in esports.
The prize pool for Dota’s The International event has always been funded in large part by the Battle Pass. And with the conclusion of its Part I on November 2, the final sum of money for the prize pool also becomes known.
With the contribution of the global Dota 2 community, Valve managed to bring the prize pool to just under $19 million. Although this is a lot of money, it still pales in comparison to what it has been in previous years. Not only that, but this year’s prize pool marks the first time the total garnered money does not surpass that of the previous year. This means the TI11’s relatively low prize money is the first iteration of TI since the original event not to surpass its predecessor’s total.
Why Was the Prize Pool So Small?
With the final prize pool settling at $18 930 775, the community contributed $17 330 775 through Battle Pass purchases. The other $1,6 million were the base given out directly by Valve. The $17 million were all pulled from 25 percent of the total battle pass purchases made between September 1 and November 2.
With the previous The International’s prize pool standing at $40 018 400, it was already difficult to surpass that sum. It was evident from the early days of TI11’s Battle Pass that it was lagging behind previous years. And although Valve implemented some changes early on in an effort to make the Battle Pass more appealing to players, the final collected sum did not even reach half of what last year’s prize pool was.
Another factor in why the prize pool was so low and there was not much interest in the Battle Pass can be linked to the relatively low viewership in TI11. With a total of 67 692 105 hours watched across the board, this year’s Dota 2 TI marks the lowest viewership in three years. The difference is best illustrated when looking at last year’s event, which had more than 100 million hours watched.
Dota 2 still remains one of the4 most popular games and esports in the world, but it was clear that the growth streak had to end somewhere. Only time will tell if The International will once again break its own record next year.
