CS: GO is the second esport to surpass the $100m 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 $100m.

CS: GO's prize money milestone

As of September 14 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 analysed and published by SafeBettingSites.com. At the current dollar to rand exchange rate, that's nearly R1.7bn.  

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 across 1,415 tournaments. Clearly, the reason why CS: GO managed to surpass the $100m mark has to do with its high number of tournaments.  

The largest-ever prize pool for a CS: GO tournament is only $1.6m (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 $100m milestone as well.

The report explains:

“Epic Games’ Fortnite was third on the list, with the total prizes awarded amounting to $95.47m across 610 tournaments. League of Legends took fourth place with $78.6m awarded across 2,465 tournaments. StarCraft II sat at a distant fifth spot with a total of $33.5m 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 organisers have awarded players over the years.

This article was brought to you by Esports Central