The Esports World Cup announced that its prize pool for 2024 will be a record-breaking $60 million for its massive esports tournament this summer.
The largest prize pool in esports history will set the stage for the event in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, from early July through August, said Ralf Reichert, CEO of the nonprofit Esports World Cup Foundation, in an interview with GamesBeat.
“What we’re announcing today is actually the prize of money, which is $60 million plus, which is intended to be a testimony of how serious we are to make this as big as we can,” he said. “It’s not only life changing for players. What we promise is that it’s actually life changing for the clubs as well. You know the economics of the clubs. So it’s very, very meaningful in that regard.”
The prize pool beats the previous record of $45 million awarded at Gamers8: The Land of Heroes, which was held in 2023 in Riyadh. And this time, the top esports organizations that walk away with the most points across 20 different game tournaments will collectively be awarded $20 million.
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The Esports World Cup will aggregate some of the biggest esports games in the world, including League of Legends, which will still hold its League of Legends World Championship as a separate event. The Esports World Cup will feature the world’s top clubs and esports athletes in 20 different tournaments that will run across the eight-week schedule.
During the eight weeks, there might be three tournaments going on at any given time. Last year, hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the Gamers8 festival, which ended with an esports tournament extravaganza.
The sizable reward represents a significant step forward in the Esport World Cup Foundation’s effort to grow the global esports industry while providing more sustainable career options for athletes and multidisciplinary esports clubs. It will also help support the EWC as a platform that draws the best athletes, teams and organizations together for an international celebration of esports excellence and fandom.
“Setting the record for largest esports prize pool is a remarkable achievement, but what I’m most proud of is the positive message this sends to the wider esports and gaming community,” said Reichert. “More than $60 million is a testament to our investment in the future of global esports, a commitment to esports fans who deserve exceptional events and an extension of our mission to create meaningful competitive opportunities with life-changing prize pools for esports athletes everywhere.”
The Club Championship, an innovative cross-game competitive format unique to the EWC, will award a total of $20 million to the top 16 clubs based on their overall performance. The Club Championship is a new format focusing on multi-game competitions, with each Club selecting the games they want to compete in. At the event’s conclusion, the Club with the best performance across various game championships will be crowned the world’s first Esports World Cup Club Champion.
“The amount of the prize pool has to be life changing,” Reichert said.
The core stakeholders include the esports players who show off their talent, as well as the clubs that need to have a sustainable business in order to be around for the long term, Reichert said. In the past, the players took in the proceeds from the tournament prizes. Historically, the clubs didn’t not partake in the prize money, but rather generated revenues from merchandise, sponsorships and media rights. The results was that the clubs often didn’t have profitable businesses.
“The Esports World Cup idea is to be a foundation, a nonprofit foundation to basically bring esports to the next chapter. What’s missing in the esports world are the huge international umbrella tournaments, like the Olympics or the World Cup, which bring the whole world together beyond just one game, one title. They bring it on the scale of traditional sports events” financed by host countries, Reichert said.
“The Esports World Cup brings this to the gaming world, bringing together what we call all the best games, all the best players, all the best clubs supporting the club ecosystem,” he said. “And after all, we’re crowning the one Esports World Cup winner, which is the club which gets most points across all of the games.”
Divvying up the money
The remaining prize pool will be divided into three additional distribution categories: Game Championships, MVP Awards, and Qualifiers. Each of the 20 Game Championships will have their own prize pool with a combined total exceeding $33 million.
In addition, a $50,000 Player Bounty will be awarded to a standout participant in each competition. More than $7 million will be awarded before the Game Championships start, as teams and athletes compete to qualify for available tournament spots across eligible qualifier events run by partnered Publishers and event organizers.
The EWC’s groundbreaking lineup of 19 participating games consists (in alphabetical order) of Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, EA Sports FC 24, Fortnite, Free Fire, Honor of Kings, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Overwatch 2, PUBG Battleground, PUBG MOBILE, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Siege, ESL R1, Rocket League, StarCraft II, Street Fighter 6, Teamfight Tactics and Tekken 8.
In addition to its focus on competitive excellence, the EWC will transform Riyadh into the epicenter of esports fandom and gaming culture with a massive immersive festival featuring gaming activations, community tournaments, pop culture celebrations, international experiences and much more. Additional information about the EWC Festival will be released at a later date.
To celebrate this historic announcement, the EWCF has activated in Las Vegas (at the Sphere) to highlight the tournament’s confirmed games, marquee athletes and the world’s best Clubs. The EWC will take place in The Boulevard City, a 220-acre complex in Riyadh.
The long term
Eventually, the event will be held in Qiddiya City, which is still under construction. Qiddiya City is Qiddiya’s inaugural project; a new global destination built from scratch on the foundations of play. Located at the heart of the Tuwaiq Mountains just 40 minutes from Riyadh, the city brings entertainment, sports and culture together.
For the Esports World Cup, Qiddiya City has been named the presenting partner of The Elite Player Lounge and The Esports Arena. The Elite Player Lounge is designed as a place for participating EWC professional players to train, relax, socialize and prepare for matches. The lounge will be outfitted with amenities and services to help the players reach peak performance. Qiddiya Gaming will also have its own dedicated experiential zone around the competition venues where it will preview the city’s ambitious plans for the Gaming & Esports District.
In March, Sony Group signed a multi-year partnership agreement to collaborate on initiatives for the Esports World Cup.
Making money?
Reichert became the CEO of the foundation when the cup was announced in October. The foundation, as a nonprofit, is not aimed at making money. But it does want to create a sustainable esports tournament. To that end, it generates business from sponsorships, merchandise, ticketing and media rights. It also generates the bulk of the money from host country fees, which is in this case are being paid by Saudi Arabia.
“The good news is I’m the CEO of a foundation. So my goal is not profitability. It’s self sustainability. Don’t get me wrong, right? We strongly believe that we can create revenue streams with Esports World Cup. We’ve already announced some of the major sponsorships including Sony Corp., which is unprecedented in the esports,” Reichert said.
ESL Face-It, Reichert’s former company, will help with the umbrella tournament, if it makes sense, he said. But he is no longer on the board of that company since he joined the nonprofit. ESL Face-It is an operating partner, as is VSPO. ESL Face-It Group’s leaders will speak at our GamesBeat Summit 2024 event on May 20-21 in Los Angeles. (You can also sign up here to attend using You can get 25% off with this discount code: gbs24dean25).
Regional controversies
Reichert said that Saudi Arabia has proven it’s a safe place to do esports tournaments. I noted there is an active war going on in the region, with Israel fighting in Gaza and the clash with Lebanon and Iran also happening.
“Look, it’s always a concern. But just to put it into perspective, Kyiv is closer to Berlin than Jerusalem is to Riyadh. People forget that or don’t know,” he said. “So is it a concern? I mean, yes, there’s something going on in the region. Is it next door? No.”
I also noted there was controversy in the past with the PGA getting involved in golf tournaments in Saudi Arabia.
“With Gamers8, we created a pilot in the most positive way and gamers have directly experienced this themselves. So there’s enough data points for every player to see, including the treatment of LGBTQ players, where there is no problem whatsoever so far in any person traveling there. The relevant Saudi stakeholders always say everyone is welcome. This is not about not welcoming anyone. And in the best possible way, this is our job to prove,” Reichert said. “Again, we’re in the fortunate position of being a nonprofit and therefore we know we have a very different lens and role in this. We are more of an enabler than someone who needs to capture value in any timeframe.”