The Super Bowl is the biggest sports event in the United States, with millions watching yearly for both the game and the commercials. This pinnacle event is regarded as one of the highest achievements that a football player can make in their career, but the prize money each player earns is nothing compared to the largest tournaments in esports.
In the NFL’s bargaining agreement with the Players Association, it stipulates that players on the winning team earn an extra $150,000 for playing in the Super Bowl while players on the losing team only earn $75,000. This is next to nothing in comparison to the player’s multi-million dollar contracts, but it’s still a small amount compared to these esports championships.
On Sunday night, the Los Angeles Rams took home $150,000 for winning the Super Bowl but esports players earn much more money for winning world championships.
The International – Dota 2
Dota 2 is one of the oldest and most successful esports titles in the world, having amassed millions of players since its release. Each year the competitive Dota system brings together 18 teams from across the world to compete in an offline tournament called The International, which had a $40 million prize pool in 2021. Team Spirit, who won The International 10 in 2021, walked away with over $18 million, each player earning roughly $3,600,000 each. That is 24 times the amount that each individual Super Bowl winner received on Sunday.
PGL Major Stockholm – Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global offensive hosts several tournaments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout the year, but one of the biggest tournaments in 2021 took place in Stockholm, Sweden. The PGL Major had a $2 million prize pool and saw Natus Vincere take home $1 million of it for winning the entire event. With five players to each team in CS:GO, that means each player on Natus Vincere took home $200,000 for winning the PGL Major.
Champions – VALORANT
While VALORANT’s first championship tournament only had a million-dollar prize pool to spread across all sixteen teams, the amount raised for the players by fans is what puts them on the list. VALORANT released a Champions weapon bundle that raised over $7.5 million to be given to each team at the event. When divided among the teams, that gave each team an additional $468,000 in prize money. Acend, who won the event, earned roughly $818,000 for winning Champions with the help of fans leaving each player with over $163,000.
Through your support the Champions Collection has raised more than $7.5M for qualified Champions teams!
You can continue to support participating teams until the Champions Collection leaves the store on December 13. pic.twitter.com/A2nAT8GOjB
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) December 8, 2021
World Championship – Rocket League
Rocket League has had minor prize pools for their largest events of the year. However, the predicted prize pool for the 2021/22 World Championship blows the previous tournaments out of the water. The 24 teams will be competing for a $2 million dollar prize pool at the end of 2022, with the winning team taking home $600,000. With only three players on each team, the winners will take home $200,000 each for the world championship.
