The International 2019 prize pool has already reached $2 million

Less than four hours after Valve released The International 2019 Battle Pass for purchase, the prize pool for its corresponding event has reached the $2 million milestone.

Valve posted the link the official page to purchase the TI9 Battle Pass and listed the initial prize poll at an even $1.6 million. Every single Battle Pass purchase puts 25 percent of the total price into the pool.

Last year’s event, TI8 reached $25,532,177 in total prize money by the time it started in August. Dota 2 has one of the largest concurrent playerbases in the world, currently sitting at an average of just over 523,000 players compared to 474,000 around the same time, which means this year’s prize total has a good chance at surpassing TI8’s total.

For reference, both the original TI in 2011 and TI2 paid out at $1.6 million and the total has increased each year since then. This increase of the prize pool is almost solely thanks to the community as they continue to buy the Interactive Compendium—now Battle Pass.