On August 26th, Valve’s competitive shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive once again proved why it is regarded as the greatest FPS title of all time by reaching $100,000,000 in prize money awarded through tournaments.
According to esports earnings, CSGO is currently ranked #2 in terms of prize money among all the esports in the world, beating the likes of the most popular titles in video game history including Fortnite and League of Legends, which have a prize money count of about $94,000,000 and $77,000,000 respectively. However, although CSGO beats Dota 2 in player count, it falls short of it in terms of prize money. The MOBA by Valve rocks a total prize money of a whopping $226,000,000, which is unmatched in esports history.
WESG 2016 and WESG 2017 hold the record of the tournament with the highest prize pool in professional CSGO, with a prize pool of $1,500,000 each. They are followed by ELEAGUE Season 1 which boasts a prize pool of $1,410,000 and was organized in mid-2016.
With the rising popularity of CSGO in the past few years, more and more tournaments are being conducted with considerable prize pools. While the release of Riot’s new shooter VALORANT has certainly given a bit of a bump to the popularity of CSGO, the prize money revolving around the esports scene of CSGO is only expected to escalate steadily in the upcoming months due to the consistent and incredibly popular pro circuit of the shooter by Valve.
