Esports prize money in 2025: $270M+ awarded across the top-earning games

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In 2025, esports tournaments awarded a total of more than $270 million in prize money, representing a 15.5% increase from 2024. Esports Charts compiled a ranking of the year’s richest esports titles by total earnings, with the top 10 featuring not only classic games from Valve and Riot Games but also several unexpected contenders. 

Counter-Strike emerged as the highest-earning esports title of 2025 by total prize money: more than $32.2 million was awarded across tournaments during the year, representing a 41.5% increase compared to the game’s total prize pool in 2024. This rapid growth was driven by an expanded top-tier tournament calendar, including new events organized by PGL and the launch of the BLAST Bounty series. At the same time, the Chinese competitive scene experienced a strong resurgence, marked by major events such as the 2025 Asian Champions League, CS Asia Championships 2025, and IEM Chengdu 2025. 

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Dota 2, another esports title developed by Valve, ranked second overall. The game topped last year’s standings but slipped to second place in 2025. Notably, its total prize money remained largely unchanged year over year, reaching approximately $23.1 million.

The flagship Dota 2 event of 2025 was The International 2025, with a prize pool accounting for roughly one-tenth of the game’s total annual prize money. The rest was accumulated through a series of million-dollar tournaments, including PGL Wallachia, BLAST Slam, FISSURE PLAYGROUND and DreamLeague. The professional Dota 2 calendar has become increasingly congested. Compared to last year, the number of top-tier events has grown noticeably, and teams are sometimes forced to pass on tournaments due calendar overload.

For the second year in a row, Honor of Kings finished among the top three. The MOBA developed by China’s TiMi Studio Group awarded $21.7 million in prize money across its tournaments in 2025. Nearly half of that total came from the King Pro League Grand Finals 2024, the flagship event of the game’s competitive season. It also ranked as the highest-paying tournament for a single esports title, excluding multi-game events with combined prize pools.

Read also: King Pro League Grand Finals 2025 sets Guinness World Record for largest esports attendance

Compared to 2024, Honor of Kings saw only a modest increase in total prize money. The game’s competitive ecosystem operates within a tightly structured format with a fixed lineup of tournaments, limiting overall growth to just 3.8%. The increase was driven primarily by currency fluctuations, as most HoK tournament prize pools are denominated in Chinese yuan. 

Fortnite climbed to fourth place among the highest-earning esports titles of 2025, up from fifth in last year’s ranking. Over the past 12 months, battle royale tournaments awarded a total of $15.6 million in prize money, marking a 14.6% year-over-year increase. This growth was driven in part by changes to the competitive format. Whereas the Fortnite Champion Series previously featured a single North American division, the region was split into two in 2025: NA West and NA Central. The launch of new events, such as the FNCS 2025 Pro-Am, also played a role in boosting the game’s overall prize pool.

PUBG Mobile finished just behind Fortnite, awarding more than $15.3 million in prize money, around 7% less than the game’s total last year. A closer look shows that the modest decline was driven primarily by the Chinese Peacekeeper Elite League series. The most likely explanation is currency adjustments between the U.S. dollar, the Chinese yuan, and the Indian rupee. Additionally, a slight redistribution of prize pools across regions in the PUBG Mobile Super League also contributed to the overall decrease.

Read also: PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2025 recorded its highest peak viewership in five years

The second half of the ranking is led by League of Legends, the most-watched esports title by peak viewership. In 2025, total prize money for Riot Games’ MOBA climbed to nearly $15 million, representing a 59% increase year over year. The primary growth drivers were major international events: the Mid-Season Invitational prize pool jumped from $250,000 to $2 million, while the World Championship prize pool rose from $2.2 million to $5 million. Prize money at the Esports World Cup 2025 also doubled, and the competitive calendar expanded with the addition of a new international event, First Stand. 

Valorant’s total tournament prize pool in 2025 reached $11.2 million, pushing the team-based shooter up to seventh place in the rankings. The 23% increase was largely fueled by the inclusion of a Valorant event in the larger Esports World Cup series. Over the summer in Riyadh, the top teams competed for more than $1.2 million, with Team Heretics claiming the championship after defeating Fnatic in the final.

Read also: Valorant Champions 2025: All viewership records

Rocket League made notable strides compared to the previous year. Its total tournament prize pool in 2025 increased by 45%, reaching $9.7 million. Multiple events contributed to this growth: prize pools for the majors and Saudi eLeague rose modestly, while the Rocket League event at the Esports World Cup nearly doubled its prize money. 2025 also saw the introduction of RLCS 1v1 tournaments, which offered separate prizes.

The team-based tactical shooter Rainbow Six secured ninth place, with total prize money of $9.4 million. Compared to 2024, this represents a modest 2.3% decline, primarily due to minor changes in the season format.

Rounding out the ranking of the year’s highest-earning esports games is PUBG: Battlegrounds. Its total prize pool in 2025 grew modestly to $7.8 million, boosted in large part by the PUBG Nations Cup 2025, which saw its prize money double. The year also featured more A-tier events, including two Twitch Rivals tournaments.

Top esports games of 2025 by prize pool