The world of esports has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. One of the biggest and most popular games, Dota2, has been leading the way in terms of revenue. According to a recent report, Dota2 generated almost $300 million from its Battle Pass in 2022.
What is Battle Pass?
For those who don’t know, the Dota 2 Battle Pass allows players to gain access to a variety of exclusive in-game rewards, tournament, and event features. It also helps to support the game’s developers and keep the game running smoothly.
Players can purchase a Battle Pass at various levels, with the higher level passes providing access to more rewards. By playing the game and completing various in-game challenges, players can level up their Battle Pass, unlocking new rewards as they go.
In addition to the rewards that can be earned through leveling up the Battle Pass, players can also participate in a variety of Battle Pass-exclusive game modes and challenges. They can create guilds and earn guild rewards after completing guild challenges and daily contracts.
Overall, the Battle Pass is a great way for Dota 2 players to support the professional Dota 2 competitive scene and get access to exclusive in-game rewards. It is also a way to engage players with new game modes and challenges.
Battlepass Earnings in 2022
Dota 2 reportedly generated $293.024.922 between September 1st and January 12th. The money generated from the Battle Pass was likely due to the success of the game’s latest tournament, The International 2022, which featured some of the best teams in the world and had a massive prize pool of more than $18.930.775.
Valve allocates a quarter of all Battle Pass-related purchases to The International prize pool each year. This has resulted in The International becoming the highest-paying Esports tournament annually since 2015. Additionally, every edition of The International since its inception in 2011 has had a larger prize pool than the previous one, with the exception of TI11.
The International and Battlepasss
The success of the Battle Pass and The International have been intertwined for years. With more people getting interested in the game, more sponsors are looking to get involved, which could lead to increased revenue in the future.
It is clear that Dota2 is continuing to be a major player in the Esports world and is likely to remain so in the future. With the success of the Battle Pass, more people are playing the game and the prize pool for tournaments is only increasing. This looks like a very prosperous future for Dota2 and its players.
But is the prize pool still increasing? Considering the fact that a year before, TI10 had a prize pool of $40.018.195, the prize pool of 19 million isn’t even close to that. Looking at the numbers, it should have been somewhere around $73.256.230.
So, it does not make any sense. Or does it?
Reportedly, Valve did contribute 25% of battle pass profits to The International 11’s prize pool. However, this only applied to Part I of the battle pass, which ran from September 1st to November 2nd. Upon the conclusion of Part I, the prize pool for The International 11 reached somewhere around $19 million, comprising of the crowdfunded amount of $17,330,775 and the base $1.6 million contribution from Valve. After that, all revenue generated from the battle pass went directly to Valve.
When Valve announced that none of the profits from Part II of the battle pass would be added to the prize pool for The International, there was a hope that the money would be used to support the scene in other ways. However, it appears that has not been the case, as the current announced prize pools for the Dota Pro Circuit regional leagues and the Majors in 2023 are the same as the previous year.
Final Thought
Dota 2’s Battle Pass continues to be a major source of revenue for the game and its developers. The success of the Battle Pass has been closely tied to the success of The International, the game’s premier tournament.
In 2022, Dota 2 generated almost $300 million from its Battle Pass, a significant increase from previous years. However, the prize pool for TI11 was not even close to the TI10 prize pool, which raised questions about the use of funds generated from the Battle Pass. Despite this, Dota 2 continues to be a major player in the Esports world and is likely to remain so in the future
