PMGC 2021 Announced With $6 Million USD Prize Pool: How Does it Compare to Other Esports Events?

The PUBG Mobile World Invitational (PMWI) 2021 came to an end yesterday on 25^th July, with James Yang - Director of PUBG Mobile Esports announcing key details about the upcoming PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC) 2021. During the closing presentation of PMWI 2021, it was revealed that the second edition of PMGC will be taking place from Nov 2021 to Jan 2022. It will be featuring a massive prize pool of $6,000,000 USD (INR 44,66,45,400), which is the biggest for a single tournament in PUBG Mobile esports history. The tournament, divided into two parts, will witness the League Stage being conducted from Nov to Dec 2021, while the Finals is scheduled to commence some time in Jan 2022.

With competitive PUBG Mobile set to break its own prize pool record for a single tournament, let's take a look at how it fairs against some of the biggest tournaments from other esports titles, both mobile and PC.

PMGC 2021: Comparing prize pool to major tournaments from other esports titles

As per the announcement made by Yang yesterday, the upcoming PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021 has been announced with a $6 Million USD prize pool, more than the entire PUBG Mobile esports prize pool of 2020 which was about $5 Million USD.

Mobile Esports

While this might be the record prize pool for a single tournament so far when it comes to competitive PUBG Mobile, is it also the biggest across all of mobile esports?

Let us take a look at some of the biggest mobile esports tournaments in terms of the total prize pool being offered across various titles and see how they compare to PMGC 2021.

Based on the table above, the upcoming Honor of Kings World Champion Cup 2021 which is scheduled to take place from 28^th July to 28^th August is dominating the mobile esports prize pool at the moment, with PMGC 2021 right up there taking the second place.

However, when comparing it to other mobile Battle Royales, the total prize pool is roughly twice that of Peacekeeper Elite League 2020 Season 3 (Chinese version of PUBG Mobile) and three times that of Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore and Clash Royale League 2019 World Finals.

PC Esports

PC Esports, however, is a whole other ball game. PMGC 2021's total prize pool is still significantly lesser than other PC titles including PUBG PC.

This is especially evident when comparing it to Dota 2 which has consistently hosted the biggest esports tournaments with the highest prize pool since its inception in 2011. It has been constantly raising the bar high and setting new records with each passing year.

However, the fact that PMGC 2021 beats three PC titles - VALORANT, CS:GO, and Apex Legends, while catching up to CoD, LoL, PUBG (PC), is a great feat in itself. It shows how rapidly the mobile gaming industry has grown and the bright future ahead for PUBG Mobile esports.

It needs to be kept in mind though that everything discussed here is strictly based on a tournament's total prize pool. Other metrics like viewership, userbase of particular titles, and more have not been taken into consideration.