Despite its smaller size and more niche audience, Brawlhalla has proven it’s capable of going head-to-head with the big names in fighting games, most recently with the Brawlhalla DH prize pool beating out loads of the more established esports games.

This year has seen quite a few big stories about prize pools already, including the record-breaking prize for Capcom Pro Tour 2022. Brawlhalla has always had kind of outsized prizes though, with the tournament achieving total prizes of over $1 million for quite a while.

DreamHack Fighters San Diego is going to be hosting tournaments for quite a few of the biggest fighting games. However, among the roster is another tournament for Brawlhalla. Despite its smaller audience, Brawlhalla is punching way above its weight in cash with a $70,000 prize pool.

The Brawlhalla DH Prize Pool has been announced for the tournament. DreamHack is going to be hosting quite a few major titles, but the Brawlhalla section has captured attention. The prize pool is going to include a payout of $9,000 for doubles winners and $7,500 for singles winners.

The total prize pool stands at $35,000 for singles and the same for doubles. Collectively that’s $70,000 for a single fighting game at this event. In contrast, Smash Ultimate has a total prize pool of $7,000, and even Tekken 7 and Street Fighter both have pools of $2,000. That makes the Brawlhalla DH prize pool more than 30x bigger than some of the other top fighting games here.

For a game that’s arguably one of the more niche on the line-up, it’s a pretty great showing.

Brawlhalla’s DH prize pool blowing other games out of the water isn’t anything all that new. The disparity is surprising this time around, but Brawlhalla has always managed bigger prize pools than similar games on its level. Why exactly is this though?

Brawlhalla has often promoted itself as having the highest prize pools in fighting game esports. The source of some of this cash is Blue Mammoth Games themselves. The Ubisoft-owned developer officially sponsors tournaments which do a lot for helping increase prize pools. Other tournaments for fighting games are usually at the mercy of sponsors. Events can have all of the best players, but without publisher support, there’s a limit to just how much can be raised. Even worse for a game like Smash Bros when the threat of shutdown is always lingering. Brawlhalla doesn’t have this problem.

The Brawlhalla DH prize pool is that much bigger because the developers of the game view the large prize pools as a key ingredient in Brawlhalla it’s half the reason a lot of its pros switched to the game. More and more though fighting game tournaments have started to ramp up the prizes. Brawlhalla’s success shows that it works. Offer decent money, and even a more niche game can rise to the top.

Brawlhalla won’t be able to hang onto that most funded fighting game esports title without a fight soon. While they’ve had a good run, it looks like other games in the genres are actually starting to catch up to how much of a boost decent support can provide for an esport. It’s all good news for pros and fans though.

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