entire condensate. This is explicitly excluded in our model, since the disorder correlation length is assumed to be much smaller than the condensate size leading to spatial density and phase fluctuations of the condensate instead. Moreover, in various works on two-dimensional polariton BECs in CdTe based MCs disorder effects were also observed, leading to fluctuations within the far-field photoluminescence (PL) distribution [@Richard.2005] or the spatial first-order correlation function [@Kasprzak.2006]. Even frequency desynchronization between spatially separated condensate fragments can be induced, if the ratio between the disorder potential and the polariton interaction potential strength exceeds a critical value. [@Baas.2008; @Krizhanovskii.2009; @Wouters.2008b; @Eastham.2008] However, the dependence of the condensate density on the disorder effects was not analyzed within these works.

The paper is organized as follows: In Sec. \[sec:theory\_disorder\] we introduce our theoretical model. We discuss the disorder impact on a homogeneously and inhomogeneously excited condensate for a quasi-equilibrium (weak gain and loss) and driven dissipative (strong gain and loss) condensate, respectively. Furthermore, we provide a general argument that explains our experimental findings. These are presented in Sec. \[sec:experimental\_results\]. In Sec. \[sec:fit\_of\_exp\_data\] the theoretical predictions are confirmed by comparing experimental data to theoretical simulations. The summary and conclusion can be found in 