2019 is coming to a close and it'll be another year where Dota 2 has managed to stay in the upper echelons of the esports industry. A game that has contributed the most in terms of prize money earning among all other game genres, it is only fair to take a look at which countries have earned the most in this discipline. China tops the list for the highest earning country in Dota 2 while Europe and CIS has more of a cumulative presence in the top earning list. SEA, on the other hand, is on the bottom echelons of the earning list. Let's take a look at the image below: It is no surprise that China tops the list in this category with over $63,168,187.53 spread across 474 players. What surprises me the most is the number of players who have earned in millions. China has a whopping number of 26 players that have earned in millions of dollars in this game. LGD's Somnus, Fy and Ame hold the top three spots with well over $2 million each in prize money and coincidentally, none of them has ever won a TI. Is that all due to the structured scene where esports is treated as a job and also has the support of the government? Is it due to the infrastructure that the gaming organisations provide to their players and help them in having a sustainable career in this game? Finland occupies the second position with $15,604,824.67 spread across 80 players. JerAx, Topson and Matumbaman occupy the top three positions. Jerax leads the chart with over $6 million in winnings followed by Topson and Matumbaman valued at over $5 million and $3 million, respectively. The cumulative earnings of these three stands at a whopping $15,442,227.23. This means that rest of the players account for a total of $162,597.44 among them. A huge gap indeed! Similarly, USA and Denmark consist of three players each that have crossed the million mark out of which only cr1t- and MiSeRy are non-TI winners. Russia follows a similar pattern to that of China but at the fifth position. Four millionaires but no TI winners. All of them at one point played for Virtus Pro -- namely, Ramzes666, Solo, 9pasha and RodjER. There are many such players who have become millionaires and are not necessarily associated with winning a TI. The whole point of this article is to question the viability of the heavy top end prize distribution at tournaments especially The International. Has the money grown? Definitely yes! Is it viable to others than a select few? Debatable. What are your thoughts? Stats taken from esportsearnings.

---

You can follow my work on my Twitter profile --> KarY. You can head over to our Dota 2 hub for more content. Headline image courtesy: di.community