Say what? Right now, Dota 2 The International 11 prize pool is $18,166,069

It has been a while since The International 2022 Battle Pass was released, but the $1,600,000 base prize pool already for TI11 stands at a massive $18,166,069 as of Oct. 28, 2022.

After all, The International (TI11) is the biggest event in the history of esports boasting the highest amount of prize pool the industry has to offer.

How is TI11’s prize pool progressing over time?

• 28/10/2022: $18,166,069 (Day 56)
• 15/10/2022: $15,838,732 (Day 43)
• 05/10/2022: $13,102,471
• 24/09/2022: $12,244,670
• 19/09/2022: $11,736,583
• 15/09/2022: $11,087,067
• 03/09/2022: $6,969,304 (Day 1)

As you can see, and to the surprise of no one, TI11’s prize pool is on track to match, if not obliterate previous years’ marks… at least one can hope because it certainly doesn’t look that way.

In fact, the current prize pool moves at the same pace, it will barely beat TI6 (2016)’s $20,770,460 mark.

Read Ana interview: “What’s the point of playing useless DPC”

Why is the prize pool so huge?

To the uninitiated, The International is the crown jewel Dota 2 event hosted annually by Valve, commemorating the best teams across the globe in a high-intensity packed competition.

Valve provides $1.6M as the base amount of prize money every year, whilst the passionate community chimes in with their contributions via crowdfunding, to further increase the prize pool. That crowdfunding is done through Dota 2 Battle Pass (Compendium) sales.

The passionate (read: crazy) fans are solely responsible for emptying their wallets. In return, they receive beautiful in-game hero sets, voice lines, personas, arcanas, or ultra/cosmically rare items which can be sold off in the market for hundreds of dollars.

They are also rewarded with the Fantasy Compendium – a feature where they can rank amongst the best in the world by creating their own fantasy drafts, and winning points in return.

The prize pool increases because “25% of every purchase [Battle Pass] prior to the conclusion of The International 2022 goes towards The International 2022 prize pool.”

How high is TI11’s prize pool compared to previous years?

• TI1 (2011): $1,600,000
• TI2 (2012): $1,600,000
• TI3 (2013): $2,874,380
• TI4 (2014): $10,923,977
• TI5 (2015): $18,429,613
• TI6 (2016): $20,770,460
• TI7 (2017): $24,787,916
• TI8 (2018): $25,532,177
• TI9 (2019): $34,330,068
• TI10 (2021): $40,018,195
• TI11 [current year, 2022]: $18,166,069 and rising

New records have been set every year with each TI prize pool surpassing the previous, but the eleventh iteration of The International a.k.a TI11 might struggle to reach a higher mark.

The publicly available Dota 2 Prize Tracker indicates that TI11’s prize pool will still be among the best ever as it ranks third comparatively, but that might change.