2025 VCT Prize Pool Breakdown: How much did VCT teams earn in 2025?

A year of VALORANT esports has drawn to a close, with NRG claiming the highest honor of all after winning VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions. Before we gear up for a new season of action at the highest level, it's time to look back at the 2025 VCT prize pools and break down exactly how much was handed out in prize money at every tournament, and which teams became the highest earners of the year.

2025 VCT Prize Pool Breakdown

The total prize pool for all 2025 VCT tournaments comes up to $4.5 million, making it exactly the same amount handed out the previous year (2024). Of course, not all tournaments featured the same prize pool, with pools getting progressively larger over the year as the stakes got higher.

Here's a detailed breakdown of the total 2025 VCT prize pool, separated per tournament:

Naturally, Champions Paris made up a significantly large piece of the pie when it came to 2025 VCT total prize money. In fact, the prize pool for Champions was considerably higher than that of the two Masters events of the year combined.

As for regional leagues, Kickoff and Stage 1 tournaments did not offer any cash prize. Instead, incentives focused on collecting Championship Points and qualifying for their respective Masters events (not to mention regional bragging rights).

As the most important of the three regional tournaments of the year, Stage 2 did offer a cash prize, however. With almost a year of practice and improvement for every team in the league, Stage 2 often turns out to be the most competitive and exciting VCT regional event. For that reason, Riot wanted to ensure teams had a little extra to fight for before the final champions of the year for each region were decided.

China ended up being the exception to this, though, offering no prize pool for Stage 2. Note that teams from the VCT China have strong backing from Tencent (Riot's operator in China), and teams often receive heavy baseline financial support rather than focusing on prize pools.

Highest Earners: Which VCT teams came out ahead in 2025?

The fact that NRG only won a single tournament in 2025 and still managed to become the highest VCT earner in terms of prize money this year speaks to the power of Champions. Between their title run at Champs and their second place finish at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 2, NRG came up with a total of $1,065,000 in prize earnings, besting all of their VCT competition in that regard.

Up next we have Paper Rex and Fnatic in the number 2 and 3 spots after earning $650,000 and $610,000 in 2025, respectively. For the Pacific giants, their win at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025 (where they defeated Fnatic themselves in the finals) and VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Pacific Stage 2, coupled with a fourth place finish at Champions Paris, saw the team earn a considerable sum in prize money this year. For Fnatic, the team's second place finishes at both Champions and Masters Toronto proved enough to see the European squad sit comfortably in third place on this list.

And then we have G2 Esports, a team that could have ended up much higher on this list, but happened to fall short time and again with the biggest prize pools on the line. Despite their international disappointments, winning every single Americas tournament in the year and finishing 2nd at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Bangkok 2025 managed to earn G2 enough in prize earnings ($325,000) to take the fourth spot on this list.

Last but not least, there's T1. Some may call them a one hit wonder, but the truth is that their title run at Masters Bangkok proved enough for T1 to squeeze into the list of top 5 VCT-earning teams in terms of prize money in 2025 with a total of $305,000.

Note that this list only takes into consideration prize earnings from VCT tournaments.

Understanding VCT revenue: How much did VCT teams earn in 2025?

At the highest level of VALORANT esports (the VCT), teams don't receive money from Riot Games solely through prize rewards. Far from it, actually.

For VCT partner teams, a large portion of their revenue comes from the sales of in-game items such as team skins, Season Capsules, and Champion Collection iniciatives. According to Global Head of VALORANT Esports Leo Faria, a total of $105.2 million was shared with teams from the VCT in 2025 alone (the highest amount to date).

Of this $105 million, an incredible $86 million came directly from the sales of digital item related to VALORANT esports. And the best part? This number nearly doubles last year's sum of $44 million, representing a more-than-encouraging trend for the scene.

Prize money aside, Riot offers numerous incentives which help make up the total sum shared with VCT teams in 2025. One of these, for instance, comes by way of qualifying for VALORANT Champions. Teams that made it to the biggest tournament of the year made over $700,000 each simply for qualifying.

This means that, with the new Path to Champions format, Challenger teams and other non-VCT squads also stand to gain over half a million USD if they manage to shock the scene by qualifying for Champions Shanghai in 2026. Suffice it to say that this is a tremendous amount of money for any Tier-2-or-below team. Plus, of course, once they're at Champs, these teams would get to compete for a piece of the prize pool as well.

In the end, sustainability in the VCT comes by way of a lot more than prize pools. When it comes down to it, the $4.5 million in total prize money does not look like much compared to the $105 million shared with VCT teams in 2025 overall. Sustainability at this level, however, often requires innovation, and that is precisely why in his open letter to the community, Leo Faria announced that he's "excited to share that we’re cooking up a new plan for digital goods in 2027. Something new… maybe not so classic." Read into that what you will.

For all things VCT-related, make sure to stay tuned to THESPIKE.GG as we continue to update you with the freshest game and esports news.

Featured Image Source: Riot Games/Edited by THESPIKE.GG