League of Legends has turned into one of the biggest esports titles in the world with millions of players from across the globe tuning in each and every day to watch the world's best go toe-to-toe as they battle to become the best team and the best region in the world. 

Over time, the prize pools for these giant tournaments have increased year upon year, along with the regional leagues that provide stability for its players, rather than fighting for a salary in each tournament. Let’s take a look at the evolution of prize pools in League of Legends.

The early years of League of Legends

While many like to claim the initial World Championship took place in Phreaks basement, it in fact took place in Sweden, hosted by Dreamhack, which went on to be one of the biggest esports brands in terms of hosting tournaments and esports LANs. 

At the time, there were a limited amount of teams competing in the early days of League of Legends. South Korea and China did not have access to the game just yet, similar to how China got VALORANT later than the rest of the world officially. In the season one World Championship, eight teams competed for a shot at the championship. The prize pool for that time period was a significant jump for LoL esports, with a prize pool just shy of $100,000. Let’s take a look at how the prize pool was distributed for that event.

League of Legends grew exponentially over the next year with a much larger World Championship, hosting more teams from across the globe, including China and South Korea, regions that would go on to dominate League of Legends esports for more than a decade, an accolade that is still proving as strong today. In the Season 2 World Championship, the League of Legends tournament prize pool also grew significantly, going from $100,000 dollars in year one in a small hall, to packing out the Galen Center in Los Angeles with a $2 million prize pool. 

The game was growing at a rapid pace, at the time, the Season 2 world championship grand finals broke the global esports concurrent viewership record at 1.1 million. Even in the early years, you could see the destination League of Legends was heading in. Despite the glaring technical difficulties for Worlds season 2, Riot was showcasing they were going to be the frontrunner when it came to production and putting on the best show possible, and in the years to come they achieved just that. 

The introduction of regional leagues

With the ever-growing size of LoL esports, Riot decided it was time to hone in on the pie being separate and take control of the esport they were building. In came the LCK (Korea), LPL ( China), and at the time the EU and NA LCS, now known as the LCS and LEC. These were domestic leagues that would build up towards international competition that culminated with the end-of-year World Championship. 

While third-party tournaments such as Dreamhack and IEM came towards an end in League of Legends, the domestic leagues provided somewhat stable lives for its pro players with only a couple of teams each year having to fight for their careers in the promotion and relegation tournament. While there have been changes to the format, the prize pool has remained somewhat consistent, here is the evolution of each regional prize pool in League of Legends esports.

As the regional leagues got off the ground, so did the evolution of the League of Legends World Championship. And while they remained in North America for another year, Worlds was starting to become a larger than life event and a celebration for LoL fans across the globe. In 2013, we saw a a young faker lift his first ever championship in the Staples Center with this being one of the first times we had seen a large scale event for LoL esports. Here is the evolution of Worlds Prize pools from Season 3 to 2016 when they started calling the world championship after the year they were playing in.

1. Season 3 Worlds: $2,050,000
2. Worlds 2014: $2,130,000
3. Worlds 2015: $2,130,000
4. Worlds 2016: $5,070,000
   

A second international tournament

With the success of Worlds and the ongoing success of the domestic regional leagues. Riot decided to go full steam ahead, replacing the all-star event with what would be known as the Mid Season Invitational, a second international tournament that would take place between the Spring and Summer Splits of each region. This gave meaning to the spring split as teams would have more than one chance to compete at an international event.

Not only was this a great thing for the players, it was also a great thing for Riot Games. They had the opportunity to market their game to more countries across the globe, earn more sponsors, and most importantly earn enough money so that the game could be played by millions more. Although it will never have the size of the World Championship, MSI is a fantastic tournament and a large-scale tier-one event that has produced some of the best moments in LoL history. Here's how the MSI Prize Pool has looked over the years.

1. MSI 2016: $450,000
2. MSI 2017: $1,690,000
3. MSI 2018: $1,370,520
4. MSI 2019: $1,000,000
5. MSI 2021: $250,000
6. MSI 2022: $250,000
7. MSI 2023: $250,000
8. MSI 2024: $250,000

Moving into the modern Worlds era

By the year 2024, the League of Legends World Championship has taken on a life of its own. For starters, they have a sponsored opening ceremony presented by Master Card, featuring some of the worlds biggest artists. The championship rings in the past have been designed by Mercedes Benz along with the new trophy presented to the winner. It's a global phenomenon in every stretch of the imagination.

Each year the viewership increases, showcasing that the game is still extremely popular on a global scale. On top of that, the Worlds Prize pool has remained consistent. What plays a part in this is the introduction of fans being able to increase the prize pool by purchasing the Worlds skin that is released for that event. An example being Championship Zed, each player that purchased that skin aided towards the total Prize Pool. Here's the evolution of the Worlds prize pool from 2017 up until 2024.

1. Worlds 2017: $ 4,946,970
2. Worlds 2018: $ 6,450,000
3. Worlds 2019: $ 2,225,000
4. Worlds 2020: $ 2,225,000
5. Worlds 2021: $ 2,225,000
6. Worlds 2022: $ 2,225,000
7. Worlds 2023: $ 2,225,000
8. Worlds 2024: $ 2,250,000