Ti12 will likely feature the lowest prize pool since 2013, after the abysmal change in Battle Pass content. In fact, Valve isn’t even calling it a Battle Pass release this year, instead it’s a the Compendium 2025. Expectedly, this year’s crowdfunding moves at an underwhelming pace, and the prize pool seems to reflect it.
Dota 2’s International is the premier event for the game. It is the culmination of the Dota 2 community to raise funds for the biggest Dota 2 Championship, and to find the best team out of the whole game. However, amidst the excitement, perhaps we might have mind-numbingly raised prize pools so ridiculously high until last year, just to deliver record-setting numbers year upon year.
Of course, this Dota 2 premier event is still unbeaten industry-wide in terms of financial earnings. At least, all annual prize pools up until TI11, reflect this.
The International 2025 Compendium
Throughout its history, The International’s prize pool has grown exponentially, even reaching a whopping ~$40 million mark during Ti10. While the game’s player base and popularity remained great, it hasn’t exactly kept pace with the deflating prize pool in TI12. This is worrying considering the way in which, Valve chose their direction this time, that is to deliver content that is enjoyed by every player, and not just a privileged few.
While this may seem like Valve is hammering a nail on their own coffin financially, perhaps Valve realized they needed this change in objective to develop a more sustainable and growing Dota 2 playerbase with more openly-available content. This is how it has grown over the years:
- The International 1: $1.6 million
- The International 2: $1.6 million
- The International 3: $2.8 million
- The International 4: $10.9 million
- The International 5: $18.4 million
- The International 6: $20.7 million
- The International 7: $24.7 million
- The International 8: $25.5 million
- The International 9: $34.3 million
- The International 10: $40 million
- The International 11: $19 million
- The International 12: $3 million [October 23rd, 2025]
Where Does the International 12 Prize Pool Come From?
In spite of the absence of Battle Pass 2025, the source of Ti12 prize pool is still from crowdfunding of Compendium 2025 sales. Valve has gotten increasingly broad in its scope for what crowdfunded tournaments are.
Yet, although the general public assumed this means the International 2025 prize pool aren’t provided by sponsorships, this has changed in Ti11. Last year’s Ti11 marked the first time a TI Championship was hosted by a third-party organizer, PGL, and had betting sponsorships throughout Ti11. Dota 2 fans were, of course, baffled by the ludicrous Esports betting ads blasted in-between live broadcasts.
As mentioned, Valve formerly sells in-game cosmetic items, in-game features, and fantasy tournament involvement with portions of the takings going towards the International prize pool and teams themselves. This has allowed them to raise huge sums, and make plenty themselves along the way. At Ti12, most in-game features and fantasy tournament are still available to rekindle the spirit of watching Ti12.
Albeit, the lack of shiny in-game cosmetic items, means customers have no reason to splurge on Compendium 2025 Levels. Even if the Dota 2 community seems to view increasing the prize pool for the event as a necessity and a point of pride, spending thousands on the Compendium 2025 just seems unreasonable.
Note that while Valve’s methods for crowdfunding have altered, their cut is the same. Valve rakes in 75% of the Compendium 2025 sales, while 25% goes to the prize pool. Considering Valve would have anticipated the poor sales from Compendium 2025, they should have increased the portion that goes to the prize pool to make up for the slow demand.
Read also: Dota 2 Compendium & Battle Pass controversial choices explored
What’s the point in changing this model?
In spite of raising more and more money for the biggest Dota 2 event of the year via its crowdfunding model, Valve clearly has a problem with maintaining the game’s player base, which seems to be dropping like a rock. One key factor that Valve openly shared was that the majority of the playerbase doesn’t buy Battle Pass each year, so not everyone gets to enjoy their biggest Dota 2 updates.
Hence, the community is shrinking at a rapid rate, despite the game’s gameplay is getting more diverse after every update. In light of this, what’s the point of raising such an enormous amount of money for just one event, if the esports’ popularity and appeal to the new generations is a complete failure?
Statistically, the grandest of all Ti Championships, Ti10’s prize pool was $40 million, a massive amount that could be used to fund the prize pools of 18 DPC Tours of $2.18 million each, or 80 Majors at $500K each.
These events could be organized regionally and help support the local professional scene in places like Europe, CIS, Southeast Asia, China, North America, South America and who knows where else. No doubt, such a massive amount of big tournaments would help the community grow. Instead of shrinking, it will go a long way in supporting pro players and attracting new blood.
Dota Prize Pools compared to other games
Other highly successful esports, such as League of Legends, are as populas as Dota 2. Yet, they don’t worry about not having astronomical prize pools for their World Championships. In 2025, the League of Legends World Championship has a prize pool of ~$2.25 million. That’s 18 times less than The International 2021, even though the game has 10 times more players (100+ million). This gap is growing too, the International was only 5x the LoL prize pool in 2017.
Dota 2’s huge prize pool concentrates all of the spoils for the games at the very top. While it’s natural that the top teams command the biggest prizes, the difference is becoming shocking. Smaller Dota 2 communities and competitive scenes are having some major trouble in keeping up financially to stay active. It is clear that competitive Dota 2 below the top tier is in need of help.
The International and its top tier can’t be maintained without the wider esports structure. The International itself would lose significant prestige and impact without a wider community. So why does Valve continue to neglect every portion of the league outside of it? It probably has something to do with how much they themselves make from crowdfunding the prize pool for the event. However, the long-term effects of continuing to neglect smaller Dota is going to cause problems.
Benefits of the Prize Pool
The large prize pool for the International isn’t all bad. Of course, there are major advantages to this prize pool. It definitely keeps the game competitive. With more and more competitors popping up, these huge prize pools keep players and fans interested in Dota. It also helps avoid a mass player exodus to a similar, newer game, like what happened with Overwatch when Valorant launched.
These are pros to the larger prize pool for the International. However, there are also significant downsides to the ever-growing pool. Or more specifically, to the way that Valve is handling it.
The International Isn’t a Long-Term Strategy
Offering massive rewards to a small number of teams might be good for the show in the short run. Yet, it’s definitely not a winning strategy in the long run, which Valve identified. TI Championships aren’t the only events that feature small number of teams with high prize pool, as even the Majors in DPC share a similar placebo effect. Only the top and most seasoned teams rake all the winnings, as we saw Gaimin Gladiators won all three Majors this season.
The optimal strategy in the long run is to make the table wider and allow more players to play the game competitively. As Valve disbands the DPC system after six years, we might just see a Wild West version of Dota 2 Esports, where we get more independent tournament organizers hosting important Dota 2 tournaments.
We are already seeing how well this can work, especially with the recent Riyadh Masters 2025, boasting a more lucrative prize pool of $15M. Big regional tournaments with high prize pools that offer exclusivity to consistent teams and serve as qualification events for even bigger, international tournaments. That would be the way to attract more players to contribute to the scene and give new blood the chance to go pro.
