For the first time ever, overall distributed prize money in esports tournaments skyrocketed past the $100 million mark this year, with the total tally reaching $109 million. The Esports Observer brings you the top ten games, based on the distributed earnings in 2017.

For the fourth year in a row, Dota 2 was the best paying title in the world and the reason is, of course, The International. The crowd-funded tournament has distributed total prizes of nearly $81 million during its seven years of existence. In 2013, Valve Corporation announced an interactive compendium would be available for purchase, with a quarter of the revenue being added to The International prize pool. The project bore fruit in 2014 and, ever since, The International is breaking one prize pool record after the other. This year’s International, held last August in Seattle, Washington, paid $24 million, more than any other title throughout 2017.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]One out of four tournaments in 2017 was a Counter-Strike competition.[/perfectpullquote]

The top five games from 2016 retained their positions, all showing a growth in distributed earnings. Another Valve property, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, was second, increasing its distributed prize money by almost two million. CS:GO is the most played game tournament-wise. Out of 3,622 esports tournaments during the year, 852 (almost one out of four) was a Counter-Strike competition. League of Legends was featured in just over 100 tournaments, but ended the year distributing $11.8 million. This marks a 12.3 percent increase in prize pools for LOL, although the total earnings distributed by Riot Games (and the fans who contributed to the prize pool) to the teams who competed in the World Championships, were notably short in comparison to 2016’s tournament.

Out of 2016’s top ten games, Halo, showed the most mentionable decrease in 2017 (only 11 tournaments were held in comparison to 34 in 2016). It is interesting to see if the title can make a comeback in 2018, after Halo Esports signed a partnership with 343 Industries and Major League Gaming to oversee the Halo Championship Series.

Hearthstone also showed a significant decrease in distributed prizes. The amount paid by the Blizzard title was 20 percent less than in 2016. The publisher is hoping to revamp the game in 2018, after introducing the Masters Program.

Conversely, another title developed by Blizzard grew by 70 percent. This is Overwatch, which is expected to grow even more next year, as $3.5 million will be distributed to the best performing teams of the Overwatch League’s inaugural season.

Out of the top ten games of 2016, Smite was the one to miss the list. In its place, H1Z1 made an entrance, but it is intriguing to see where it will end up next year, with Fortnite and, more importantly, PUBG dominating the battle royale scene.

Data received from esportsearnings.com. The data is compiled by the website users and is not provided by the organizers of the tournaments, so figures should be read as indicative of magnitude rather than exact numbers.