TI 2026 Prize Pool Starts at $1.6 Million. Here Is How It Grows.

The International 2026 begins in two weeks in Shanghai. Valve has opened the funding side of the event, and the TI 2026 prize pool starts from a base of $1.6 million.

That number will not stay there. Supporter Bundles are the mechanism, and the split is public.

Where your money actually goes

Buy a Supporter Bundle and it divides three ways:

• 50% goes to the creator, meaning the team or the talent whose bundle you bought
• 30% goes into the TI 2026 prize pool
• The remainder stays with Valve

Two things are worth noticing here. The creator share is the larger one, so buying a team’s bundle supports that team directly more than it inflates the pot. And the prize pool contribution is a flat 30%, so the maths on any given purchase is simple to work out.

Who has a bundle

All sixteen qualified TI 2026 teams have one. Valve extended the programme beyond teams this year in two directions.

Talent bundles cover casters and analysts across four languages. There is also a new community broadcast category, which brings smaller-language and community streams into the same funding structure for the first time.

The three tiers

Bundles come in Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each carries embroidered team logos, and the tiers stack rewards rather than replacing them.

What you keep permanently:

• Team emoticons
• Sprays
• Loading screens
• Chat wheel lines

Everything else expires at the end of September. Read the tier contents before buying if permanence matters to you, because the split between permanent and seasonal items is not obvious from the storefront.

New for this year is a team logo effigy. Its appearance can be upgraded, and it carries custom effects.

Predictions and Fantasy are live

Both returned alongside the bundles. Rewards include a set of new Immortals and terrains that unlock through play.

Neither feeds the prize pool. They are engagement features, so treat them separately from the funding question.

The context Valve left out

Team Falcons won last year in Hamburg. They arrive in Shanghai defending the Aegis on patch 7.41e, released the same day as this announcement, which changed 56 heroes.

Worth keeping in proportion: a $1.6 million base is a long way from the crowdfunded peaks of the Battle Pass era. Valve moved away from that model deliberately, and Supporter Bundles are the smaller, more direct replacement. Anyone expecting the pool to climb into eight figures over the next fortnight is working from an outdated mental model.