Polymarket’s The International 2026 market hits $1 million on day one

Team Vision currently leads the field at 25 percent implied probability, ahead of Team Yandex at 20 percent and BoomBoys at 14 percent. Team Falcons sits at 12 percent, Team Spirit and Team Liquid are tied at 7 percent each, with Aurora Gaming at 6 percent and 1w Team rounding out the visible odds at 5 percent among the eight teams currently drawing meaningful trading volume on the market.

The market didn’t start anywhere near this size. It opened June 29 and spent its first few weeks trading in a narrow band, moving between $57,000 and $393,000 a month, well below what a market on esports’ biggest annual tournament might eventually draw, before volume started climbing steadily toward its current level heading into the tournament’s August 12–13 window, right as team rosters and group placements became clearer to bettors watching the bracket take shape.

The International runs in Shanghai from August 13 to 23, organized by Valve, the studio behind Dota 2, together with tournament operator PGL, with the main stage — the eight-team bracket that actually decides the championship — not starting until August 20. Against that backdrop, a market already covering 60 percent of last year’s full $1.6 million total volume on day one alone represents an unusually fast start for a market that still has ten days of tournament left to run.

That growth lines up with what’s happening in Dota 2 betting more broadly, not just on Polymarket specifically. Oddin.gg reported betting volume on Dota 2 at the Esports World Cup 2026 came in 2.3 times higher than the year before, suggesting the number reflects a genuine rise in attention to the game itself, not something specific to this one prediction market alone — and that the audience willing to put money on match outcomes has grown alongside it.