
Qualifying for a Major has become an extremely lucrative endeavor. In recent years, earnings from the sales of team and player stickers have been growing exponentially, dwarfing the $1 million prize pot on offer.
In 2019, Valve revealed that stickers from StarLadder Major Berlin paid out over $11 million to the participating teams and players.
With CS:GO's popularity continuing to rise and the COVID pandemic putting Majors on hold for nearly two years, that payout increased three-fold. The PGL Stockholm and Antwerp tournaments in 2021-2022 paid out a whopping $70 million combined, according to a Valve blog post celebrating the game's 10th anniversary.
Nothing can quite compare to last year’s BLAST.tv Paris Major, however. According to information gathered by HLTV and Dust2 Brasil from various team sources who wish to remain anonymous, the total earnings from the most recent Major alone surpassed a staggering $110 million.
This amounts to $4.5 million per team on average but differs based on sales of each capsule, which is divided equally between the eight teams (for team capsules) or 40 players (for signature capsules) in it. It is worth noting that these numbers don't include Vitality's Champions capsule.
Teams and players in the Contender capsules came away with the largest piece of the pie, approximately $4.5 million per team plus $250,000 per player, followed by the Legends, who earned $3.5 million per team and $200,000 per player, and the Challengers with $2.6 million per team and $200,000 per player.
Contenders
ENCE

MOUZ

Liquid

Grayhound

Complexity

The MongolZ

Fluxo

FaZe
Legends
Natus Vincere

9INE

FURIA

fnatic

HEROIC

Into the Breach

Vitality

Bad News Eagles
Challengers
Monte

paiN

G2

GamerLegion

FORZE

Apeks

Ninjas in Pyjamas

OG
The massive increase of interest in the latest Major’s digital items comes down to a few factors. The stickers were on the market for nearly five months (May 4-September 27) likely because the Paris Major was the only one to take place in 2023 in preparation for the switch to Counter-Strike 2.
The new game’s arrival early in the year also smashed player records while the stickers were on the market, with the average player count surpassing 1 million for the first time ever in May and June.

Player records were being smashed while the Paris Major stickers were on the market from May-September (Source: Steamcharts)
Such a height is unlikely to be reached again at a single Major anytime soon considering two Majors a year will be held again from 2024 on, but the trend shows just how much participating at one means.
It also helps explain the increased activity on the transfer market in the five months leading up to the qualifying process for the PGL CS2 Major, which has just begun with the open phase. New organizations were desperate to enter the Counter-Strike space and many established ones scrambled to skip as many qualifying stages as they could and build teams competitive enough to make it to Copenhagen.

Read more Road to PGL Major Copenhagen set to begin with spree of open qualifiers


fnatic


William 'mezii' Merriman

Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson

Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi

Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen

Dion 'FASHR' Derksen


ENCE #10


Paweł 'dycha' Dycha

Pavle 'Maden' Bošković

Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer

Álvaro 'SunPayus' García

Guy 'NertZ' Iluz


G2 #7


Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač

Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač

Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov

Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen

Justin 'jks' Savage



9INE #36



Kamil 'KEi' Pietkun

Wiktor 'mynio' Kruk

Krzysztof 'Goofy' Górski

Olek 'hades' Miskiewicz

Kacper 'Kylar' Walukiewicz


FORZE


Aleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov

Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko

Andrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov

Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko

Evgeny 'r3salt' Frolov



paiN



Romeu 'zevy' Rocco

Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt

Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes

Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros

Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato



Vitality #1



Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire

Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut

Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan

Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi

William 'mezii' Merriman

Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam


OG


Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan

Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen

Abdul 'degster' Gasanov

Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas

Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar


The MongolZ


Tuvshintugs 'Annihilation' Nyamdorj

Baatarkhuu 'Bart4k' Batbold

Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren

Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold

Chinguun 'hasteka' Bayarmaa


GamerLegion #18


Nicolas 'Keoz' Dgus

Mihai 'iM' Ivan

Frederik 'acoR' Gyldstrand

Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek

Isak 'isak' Fahlén



Fluxo



Allan 'history' Lawrenz

João 'felps' Vasconcellos

Adriano 'WOOD7' Cerato

Lucas 'Lucaozy' Neves

Vinicius 'vsm' Moreira


FaZe #2


Håvard 'rain' Nygaard

Helvijs 'broky' Saukants

Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken

Robin 'ropz' Kool

Finn 'karrigan' Andersen


Monte #6


Szymon 'kRaSnaL' Mrozek

Mohammad 'BOROS' Malhas

Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev

Volodymyr 'Woro2k' Veletniuk

Sergiy 'DemQQ' Demchenko


Natus Vincere


Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev

Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy

Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov

Andrii 'npl' Kukharskyi

Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy


Apeks #12


Martin 'STYKO' Styk

Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad

Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson

Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius

Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski



Bad News Eagles #35



Sener 'SENER1' Mahmuti

Flatron 'juanflatroo' Halimi

Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budeci

Genc 'gxx-' Kolgeci

Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi


Grayhound #46


Joshua 'INS' Potter

Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas

Declan 'Vexite' Portelli

Simon 'Sico' Williams

Alistair 'aliStair' Johnston


HEROIC


Casper 'cadiaN' Møller

Martin 'stavn' Lund

René 'TeSeS' Madsen

Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck

Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard


Liquid


Nick 'nitr0' Cannella

Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski

Josh 'oSee' Ohm

Keith 'NAF' Markovic

Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis



Vitality #1



Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire

Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut

Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi

Emil 'Magisk' Reif

Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen


Into the Breach #38


Thomas 'Thomas' Utting

Sebastian 'volt' Maloș

Cai 'CYPHER' Watson

Karol 'rallen' Rodowicz

Joey 'CRUC1AL' Steusel


FURIA #11


Andrei 'arT' Piovezan

Yuri 'yuurih' Santos

Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato

Rafael 'saffee' Costa

André 'drop' Abreu



Complexity #8



Michael 'Grim' Wince

Ricky 'floppy' Kemery

Justin 'FaNg' Coakley

Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou

Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli


MOUZ


Christopher 'dexter' Nong

Dorian 'xertioN' Berman

David 'frozen' Čerňanský

Jon 'JDC' de Castro

Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás



Ninjas in Pyjamas #25



Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen

Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin

Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner

Daniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov

Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke
(责任编辑:casebattles)