Esports World Cup 2026: the prize pool of each game, compared

The Esports World Cup advertises one number, US$75 million, and that number is the sum of many very different prizes. A Mobile Legends: Bang Bang team that wins its tournament in Paris this summer collects a first prize nearly four times the size of a Fortnite winner's. A Counter-Strike 2 team that finishes 32nd still leaves with money, while a League of Legends team outside the top 16 does not. For a fan comparing games, a player choosing a scene or a club planning its summer, the useful figure is the pool of each game and the way it is shared.

This guide reads those figures where the organizer prints them: the game-by-game prize tables of the 2026 Global Rulebook published by the Esports World Cup Foundation, set against the foundation's January announcement of the total. It covers the three tiers of pools, how much of each pool the winner takes, how many places are paid, the titles with no figure yet, and the qualifiers and awards that sit beside the main tournaments.

Esports World Cup Foundation release of January 20, 2026, and the prize tables in Appendix II of its 2026 Global Rulebook.

Where the US$75 million goes

The Esports World Cup is a festival of tournaments rather than one competition. Each game crowns its own champion, and clubs, the foundation's word for esports organizations, also compete across games for an overall title. In its release of January 20, 2026, the foundation set the total prize money of the 2026 edition at US$75 million, spread over 25 tournaments in 24 games.

The release divides that total into three parts. The Club Championship, the cross-game ranking of clubs, pays US$30 million to the top 24 clubs, US$3 million more than the year before, with US$7 million for the winning club. The game championships, the tournaments of each title, each have their own pool, and the foundation put their combined allocations at more than US$39 million. The remainder goes to awards for clubs and players, among them a most valuable player award for each tournament and the Jafonso Award, and to qualifying events run by partner publishers and organizers before the main event.

The event was announced for Riyadh, from July 6 to August 23. On May 20 the foundation confirmed that it was moving to Paris, and on May 27 it named Paris Expo Porte de Versailles as the venue, with the same seven weeks, from July 6 to August 23, and the same US$75 million.

Where the figures are printed

The prize money of each game is set out in Appendix II of the Global Rulebook, the foundation's rulebook for the whole event. The page carries no version number; it cites a club eligibility deadline of April 30, 2026 and a club registration deadline of May 25, 2026.

The appendix sorts the games into two families. The first section covers the versus titles, where teams or players meet head to head in matches: the shooters, the battle arenas, the sports and fighting games, chess. The second covers the battle royale titles, where many teams or players share one match and are ranked by how long they survive and how many opponents they eliminate. The difference shapes the tables: versus games usually pay groups of places at the same amount, while battle royale games pay almost every rank its own figure.

Each table gives the total pool, then the amount listed for each place or range of places. For the versus games, a range such as fifth to eighth carries one amount. Counted once for every place in the range, the amounts of a table such as League of Legends add up to its pool. The rulebook does not say how a club shares its prize money with its players.

The three US$3 million tournaments

Three tournaments carry the largest pools of the event, US$3 million each.

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup, the international tournament of the mobile battle arena game by Moonton, pays the largest first prize of the whole event: US$1,000,000. Second place takes US$500,000, third US$250,000 and fourth US$150,000. Fifth to eighth are listed at US$100,000, ninth to 12th at US$65,000 and 13th to 16th at US$45,000. The table goes on below the top 16, with US$35,000 for 17th and amounts falling to US$25,000 for 24th and 25th: 25 places paid in all. It is the only tournament of the edition whose winner receives a seven-figure sum.

The Honor of Kings World Cup has the same US$3,000,000 pool but shares it far more evenly. Its winner receives US$600,000, the runner-up US$360,000, third US$280,000 and fourth US$200,000. Fifth to eighth are listed at US$150,000 each, more than the fourth place of many other games, and the table pays down to 19th and 20th, at US$40,000.

The PUBG Mobile World Cup is built differently again, as the next sections explain: its US$3,000,000 is divided between three stages, and the winner of its grand final receives US$500,000.

The table below gathers the pools of the main tournaments with their first prize and the share of the pool it represents.

The US$2 million tier

Eight tournaments sit at US$2,000,000: Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, PUBG: Battlegrounds and CROSSFIRE. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 sits just below, at US$1,800,000.

The same total does not mean the same tournament. League of Legends and Valorant, both published by Riot Games, have identical tables: US$600,000 to the winner, US$340,000 to the runner-up, US$220,000 and US$140,000 for third and fourth, US$90,000 for fifth to eighth, US$55,000 for ninth to 12th and US$30,000 for 13th to 16th. Sixteen places are paid, and the amounts add up to the US$2,000,000 pool.

Dota 2, the battle arena game by Valve, puts more at the top. Its winner takes US$750,000, against US$340,000 for second, US$200,000 for third and US$120,000 for fourth. Fifth to eighth are listed at US$70,000, ninth to 12th at US$40,000 and 13th to 16th at US$20,000, and the table carries on past the top 16, with US$10,000 for 17th to 20th and US$7,500 for 21st to 24th: 24 places in all.

Counter-Strike 2 starts like League of Legends, with US$600,000 for the winner and US$340,000 for second, then gives less to third and fourth, at US$190,000 and US$110,000. Fifth to eighth are listed at US$60,000 and ninth to 16th at US$35,000. The table then pays the lower places at US$20,000 and US$10,000, down to 32nd place.

Rainbow Six Siege, the tactical shooter by Ubisoft, also gives its winner US$750,000, with US$350,000 for second, US$200,000 for third and US$115,000 for fourth. Its table pays 22 places, the last at US$15,000. CROSSFIRE pays US$750,000 to its winner too, then US$350,000, US$210,000 and US$130,000, and stops at 16th place, at US$25,000.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is the only pool between the two round tiers. It gives US$600,000 to the winner, US$320,000 to the runner-up, US$210,000 and US$130,000 to third and fourth, US$75,000 for fifth to eighth, US$40,000 for ninth to 12th and US$20,000 for 13th to 16th, which adds up to its US$1,800,000.

US$1 million and below

Eleven tournaments are played for US$1,000,000 or less. Rocket League, the car football game by Psyonix, and Overwatch 2 share the same table: US$400,000 to the winner, US$180,000 to second, US$100,000 to third, US$60,000 to fourth, then US$35,000, US$20,000 and US$10,000 for the groups of four places down to 16th.

The three fighting games, Street Fighter 6, TEKKEN 8 and FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, each have a US$1,000,000 pool and an identical table. These are one-on-one games, so the places belong to players. The winner receives US$250,000, the runner-up US$130,000, third US$70,000 and fourth US$50,000. The money then reaches far down the bracket: US$37,500 for fifth to eighth, US$27,500 for ninth to 12th, US$20,000 for 13th to 16th, US$12,500 for 17th to 24th and US$7,500 for 25th to 32nd.

Free Fire, Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, three games ranked by survival, also sit at US$1,000,000, with first prizes of US$300,000, US$260,000 and US$250,000. Their tables are covered in the section on how deep the money goes.

At the bottom of the scale, three tournaments carry US$500,000. The MLBB Women's Invitational, the women's tournament of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and the second tournament of that game at the event, pays US$150,000 to its winner, US$90,000 to second, US$50,000 to third and US$30,000 to fourth, then US$20,000, US$15,000 and US$10,000 down to 16th. Teamfight Tactics, the strategy game by Riot Games, has exactly the same table. Trackmania, the racing game that joins the event in 2026 with Fortnite, pays US$130,000 to its winner and spreads the rest over 32 places, the last four at US$2,000.

Added together, the 23 tournament pools that carry a printed total come to US$36.3 million. The rulebook prints no main-event total for EA Sports FC or for chess, and the foundation's January figure for the game championships as a whole is more than US$39 million.

How much the winner takes

The share of the pool that goes to first place is the clearest way to compare how steep each table is. Across the tournaments in the table above, it runs from about one sixth to two fifths.

Rocket League and Overwatch 2 give the largest share to their winner: US$400,000 of US$1,000,000, or 40 percent. Dota 2, Rainbow Six Siege and CROSSFIRE follow, with US$750,000 of US$2,000,000, or 37.5 percent. In Dota 2 the winner receives more than twice the runner-up's US$340,000.

At the other end, the PUBG Mobile World Cup gives its grand final winner US$500,000 of US$3,000,000, about 17 percent, and Honor of Kings gives US$600,000 of the same total, 20 percent. The fighting games and Warzone sit at 25 percent. In Honor of Kings, a team that finishes fifth to eighth receives US$150,000, a quarter of what the champion takes.

Two pools of the same size can be two very different tournaments. The total says how much is on the table; the table says who takes it.

How deep the money goes

The number of places paid varies as much as the size of the pools. Most tables pay 16 places: League of Legends, Valorant, Rocket League, Overwatch 2, CROSSFIRE, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Teamfight Tactics and the MLBB Women's Invitational. Honor of Kings pays 20, Rainbow Six Siege 22, Dota 2 24 and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang 25. Counter-Strike 2 and the three fighting games pay 32.

The battle royale tables go furthest, because these games put many teams in the same match and rank every one of them. Apex Legends, played as the playoffs of the first split of the sixth year of the Apex Legends Global Series, pays 40 places from a US$2,000,000 pool: US$600,000 to the winner, US$300,000 to second, US$200,000 to third, then a separate amount for every rank down to US$2,500 for 40th.

Fortnite, played as the Fortnite Reload Elite Series Championship, also pays 40 places, from US$260,000 for first to US$2,000 for 39th and 40th. Call of Duty: Warzone, played as the Resurgence Series Championship, pays 28 places, from US$250,000 to US$7,500. Free Fire pays 24, from US$300,000 to US$3,000.

PUBG: Battlegrounds splits its US$2,000,000 between a group stage and the finals. The finals pay 24 places, from US$650,000 for the champion to US$10,000 for 24th, and the group stage pays a separate, smaller amount for its first 15 places, from US$15,000 down to US$1,000.

The three stages of PUBG Mobile

The PUBG Mobile World Cup has the most layered table of the event. It is played over two weeks, from August 6 to 9 and from August 11 to 16 in the schedule the foundation published on May 27, and its US$3,000,000 is divided between three stages, each with its own pool.

The three stage pools add up to the US$3,000,000 total. The structure explains the low winner's share in the comparison above: more than a third of the money, US$1,148,000, is paid out in the group stage. The grand final itself is steep at the top, with US$500,000 for first, US$250,000 for second and US$150,000 for third.

EA Sports FC and chess: no figure printed

Two of the 25 tournaments have no main-event prize table in the appendix. For EA Sports FC, played as the FC Pro World Championship from July 22 to 26, every placement is printed as to be decided, and the total shows zero.

Chess, played from August 11 to 15, has a table whose total column shows zero and whose placings are not set out as a complete, ordered list, so no pool can be read from it.

Both titles do have a printed pool for their Last Chance Qualifier, as the next section shows, and both are among the titles eligible for the Jafonso Award.

Qualifiers and awards beside the pools

Several games add a Last Chance Qualifier, a final qualifying tournament that sends its best finishers into the main event. These carry their own, much smaller pools, and the places that qualify are marked as qualification slots rather than cash.

The Counter-Strike 2 qualifier has a US$100,000 pool: its top four qualify, fifth to eighth are listed at US$9,500 and ninth to 16th at US$7,750. The Rocket League qualifier also has US$100,000, with a main-event slot for its winner and US$10,000 for second. The Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 qualifier has US$100,000 and sends its winner through. Chess, Street Fighter 6, TEKKEN 8 and FATAL FURY each have a US$50,000 qualifier, and the EA Sports FC qualifier, like its main event, is printed as to be decided.

On top of the placings, the appendix lists two awards. The MVP Award, for the most valuable player, totals US$475,000: US$25,000 in each of 19 titles, among them Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and its women's tournament, Rocket League and Fortnite.

The Jafonso Award goes, in the foundation's January description, to players or clubs that win a game championship after coming through a Last Chance Qualifier. The appendix lists it as up to US$400,000, US$50,000 in each of eight titles: chess, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Counter-Strike 2, EA Sports FC, FATAL FURY, Rocket League, Street Fighter 6 and TEKKEN 8. A footnote states that, unlike prize money and the other awards, it may not be won at all.

The game pools and the Club Championship

The game pools are only part of what a club can earn in Paris. Each placing in a game tournament also feeds the Club Championship, the separate US$30 million ranking of clubs across all games, with US$7 million for the club that tops it. A club that places well in several games can be paid twice: once by each game table and once by its rank in the overall standings.

The two scales are different. The largest first prize of any game, US$1,000,000 in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, is a seventh of what the Club Championship winner receives, and the US$600,000 of a Counter-Strike 2 or League of Legends winner is less than a tenth of it.

The Counter-Strike 2 pool also gives a measure of the event against the rest of the calendar. The IEM Cologne Major, held from June 2 to 21 with 32 teams, carried a US$1,250,000 prize pool, according to ESL's announcement. The Esports World Cup tournament in August, at US$2,000,000, is the larger of the two by US$750,000.

The first competitions start in Paris on July 7, and the last ones, Counter-Strike 2, Fortnite, Trackmania and CROSSFIRE, close the event in the week ending August 23.

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