Millions of dollars and viewers — records of The International series

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From October 12 to 29, the culmination of the Dota 2 competitive season will take place: The International 2023. After a long break, the legendary series will finally return to Seattle, where the best teams in the world will compete for the Aegis of Champions trophy and a significant amount of money. In anticipation of the new event, Esports Charts has prepared interesting statistics about the series and its participants. 

The International is one of the most well-known and popular series in the entire esports. It was with its launch that the industry saw the emergence of mega tournaments with million-dollar prize pools, which attracted not only thousands of new players but also the attention of global media, professional athletes, show business stars, and even politicians. Undoubtedly, The International series has made a significant contribution to the development of esports and its popularity worldwide.

One of the biggest advantages of The International was its openness to players. Until recently, anyone could participate in the industry's largest tournament by simply forming a team and going through regional qualifiers. In recent seasons, this path has become more challenging but still entirely achievable (unlike in League of Legends, for example, where only teams from franchised leagues are allowed to compete in the World Championship).

The International viewership records 

The International tournaments have a huge audience reach. Qualifications for the world championships take place in six regions, and the main events attract millions of concurrent viewers, with hundreds of millions of watch time hours.

The most popular tournament of the series became The International 10, which took place in Bucharest in 2021. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers were on the verge of canceling the tournament, but they still allowed the teams to play in a huge stadium without spectators. As a result, that championship gained 107.2 million Hours Watched, the broadcasts reaching 2.74 million Peak Viewers. This same tournament became the absolute record holder in terms of prize pool, with The International 10 participants competing for over $40 million. Almost half of this money went to Team Spirit, which emerged victorious in the final. In 2023, the Gamers8 esports festival took place in Saudi Arabia with a prize pool of $45 million, but this sum covered several disciplines at once: CS:GO, Rocket League, Dota 2, and others.

In terms of watch time, The International 10 became the fifth tournament in the history of esports (excluding Chinese viewership). It was only surpassed by the four League of Legends Worlds championships, which took place between 2019 and 2022. As for concurrent viewership, The International 10 set a new record among Dota 2 tournaments, although it was unable to surpass other disciplines. Currently, there are several tournaments in esports that attract millions of viewers concurrently. The leader in this regard is the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore, which had over 5.4 million Peak Viewers. As for The International 10, its audience can be compared to the recent presentation of the iPhone 15 by Apple, or the showcases from PlayStation / Xbox / Nintendo.

Dota 2 has a very large geography: the game is popular in many countries, from Peru to the Philippines. A large number of Dota 2 fans reside in China, however, it is extremely difficult to determine the actual number of Chinese viewers on streams as Chinese streaming services hide these figures. That is why we do not include Chinese viewers in the overall statistics. 

The Top 5 languages for Dota 2 broadcasts at The International tournaments include English, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog (Philippines), and Thai. The Russian broadcast became the leader in Peak Viewers in the history of the series, gathering 1.23 million people during the match between PSG.LGD and Team Spirit in The International 10 finals. The same match set a record for the Spanish broadcast with 73.7K Peak Viewers.

The most popular series in the English broadcast was the match between OG and Team Liquid in the finals of The International 2019, which had over 1 million PV. The Thai broadcast also set a record during that match, but with a more modest 65.4K PV. The Filipino broadcast had the highest activity during the series between OG and Team Secret on the first day of the playoffs of The International 10. 

As for channels, the most popular broadcasting channels for The International series were dota2ti_ru and dota2ti, which aired the official broadcasts in Russian and English. Two community casters, Kardel and Nix, also made it into the Top 5 channels. Their broadcasts reached  201.4K and 206K PV, respectively. In general, community casting has always played a significant role in Dota 2, as Valve has usually been supportive of independent streamers. In recent years, this practice has also been adopted in other disciplines, such as League.

The International game records

The International series now consists of 11 tournaments, with the 12th set to take place in October 2023. All of these events have been both unique and similar to each other at the same time. Of course, within the series, there have been records and record holders. Some have played the most matches, some have shown the highest win percentage, and some have reached the finals more often than others. A deep analysis of the series could take many hours, but in this article, we have gathered the most interesting moments. 

We have already mentioned the highest prize pool in the history of esports ($40 million at The International 10). It is a truly unique record for the industry, as the main part of this money was raised by the fans themselves. Another unique record is the double championship at The International. So far, only five players from the OG team — ana, Topson, Ceb, JerAx, and n0tail — have achieved this feat in the entire history of the series. This team not only won the World Championships in 2018 and 2019 but also became the first team to successfully defend their title the following year. 

Puppey, a legendary Estonian player, has become the leader in terms of the number of tournaments participated in The International series, having participated in 11 tournaments. Unfortunately, he has failed to qualify for the 12th tournament. Puppey also holds the record for the number of matches played in the series, with 254 matches played and 146 victories. 

A total of 84 teams have participated in The International tournaments. Among them, LGD Gaming has been the most frequent participant in the events. With different lineups, they have attended 11 tournaments, played 249 matches, and won 162 times. When it comes to the national composition of the series participants, there were the highest number of players from China, Russia, and Malaysia.

The International 2023 will be the 12th World Championship of Dota 2. It will feature 20 teams from six regions, with 100 players representing 19 countries. Viewers will be able to track the event's viewership statistics on the coverage page.