However we should note that World of Warcraft requires a paid subscription of $15 a month, not to mention that gamers will have to purchase the game and the expansions, so there is a good chance that World of Warcraft is raking in more money compared to DotA 2’s free-to-play model. At the same time DotA 2 makes money from in-game items, which are usually cosmetic items.
In fact Valve recently released a documentary titled “Free To Play”, which was about a group of elite DotA 2 players who entered a tournament that could have potentially won them a lot of money. Valve auctioned off special in-game items that would be contributed to those who participated in the movie.
In a way it is a little ironic, considering that the original DotA was based on a Warcraft 3 mod, but has since grown into its own game where it is actually giving Blizzard’s MMORPG a run for its money.