The secret sauce of

Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing

MOBA genre ARPU• Dota 2: $1.54• Heroes of Newerth: $1.48• League of Legends: $1.32 (still by far the most successful in

total revenue)

(average revenue per monthly user, according to SuperData Research, 2014)

Why is Dota 2 at the top?• It is even giving everything gameplay-related away for free!• More hardcore, maybe?• Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing!

Crowdfunding of tournaments and teams• In the past 2 years, more than $32 million of Dota 2

tournament prize pools have been crowdfunded – dwarfing the over $8 million that has been provided by the organizers• Example: The International 5 compendium, sales of over $67

million, 25% went to the prize pool of the tournament• Professional teams have a chance to get their branded

cosmetic items, such as HUD bundles, up for sale in the game store• Compare to: Smite crowdfunded $2 million to its world

championship prize pool in 2014, making it the third-largest esports tournament of the year. Not bad for a clearly smaller title!

Crowdsourcing of content• It is possible for anyone to create new cosmetic items and upload

them to Valve’s workshop for potential inclusion into the game – and if selected, for a share of the profits generated from that item• This business model enables Valve to include much more items

to cover any possible taste – more sales!

Conclusions• Crowdfunding gives purchases more purpose, making them

about something more than just buying pixels on a screen• Crowdsourcing enables the creation of much more content to

cover any possible taste• Combined, they form the basis of a different take on

monetization