Dota 2 International Prize Once Again Beats Last Year's Total, Is Still Ridiculous Amount Of Money

It's once again that time of year: The 2017 Dota 2 International prize pool has just surpassed the 2016 prize pool, making it the biggest International prize ever--and thus the biggest in esports history.

The prize pool now totals $20,793,780 at the time of this writing, exceeding last year's mark by a bit over $20,000--although that amount will certainly increase in the coming days. There's still around a month left in the crowdfunding campaign; the International tournament actually begins on August 7 at Seattle's KeyArena, and runs through August 12.

To put this enormous sum in perspective, the 2017 Masters golf tournament had a comparably paltry $11 million pool, while the FIFA World Cup in 2018 will have a downright absurd $700 million prize pool. In terms of other esports competitions, the Rocket League Championship Series this year gave out $300,000 and the Halo 5: Guardians World Championship gave out $1 million.

Valve raises money by selling the Dota 2 Battlepass, a set of in-game items and quests that are exclusive to its owners. 25% of proceeds from Battlepass sales go to the prize pool, meaning that Valve has actually sold over $80 million worth of Battlepasses this year.

In contrast to the pass sold in prior years, the 2017 Battlepass also includes access to a new cooperative campaign. Siltbreaker, as it's called, is a two-episode campaign that tasks you and three others with exploring the Dark Reef.

If you're interested in seeing how this year's prize pool stacks up against past ones, you can check out the excellent third-pary Dota 2 Prize Tracker. You can also see the full list of items included in the Battlepass over at Dota's official website.