The biggest one-day totals in Jeopardy! history
(Looking for the all-time leaderboard? Click here.)
After Michael Bilow took home a whopping $57,198 on Tuesday, there was some confusion as to where his total stood among the highest single-game scores of all time.
Here’s an attempt to rectify that, with a nod to the players who racked up big paydays back when “I’ll take such-and-such for $500, Alex” made sense.
Clue values were doubled on November 26, 2001. As such, I’ve doubled the totals of winners who played before then. They’re denoted with an asterisk *.
* pre-doubled totals
✝ unadjusted record at the time
| Rank | Score | Player | Type | Date |
| 1 | $131,127✝ | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/17/19 |
| 2 | $130,022 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/27/19 |
| 3 | $118,816 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/23/19 |
| 4 | $110,914✝ | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/9/19 |
| 5 | $106,181 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/16/19 |
| 6 | $101,682 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/1/19 |
| 7 | $96,726 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/30/19 |
| 8 | $90,812 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/22/19 |
| $90,812 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/25/19 | |
| 10 | $89,229 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/20/19 |
| 11 | $89,158 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/12/19 |
| 12 | $86,905 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/21/19 |
| 13 | $82,381 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/3/19 |
| 14 | $80,615 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/2/19 |
| 15 | $80,006 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/19/19 |
| 16 | $79,633 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/31/19 |
| 17 | $77,000✝ | Roger Craig | Regular | 9/14/10 |
| 18 | $75,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/23/04 |
| 19 | $74,400 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/24/19 |
| 20 | $74,133 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/18/19 |
| 21 | $73,621 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/24/19 |
| 22 | $71,885 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/22/19 |
| 23 | $69,033 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/29/19 |
| 24 | $69,000 | Austin Rogers | Regular | 10/3/17 |
| 25 | $68,000*✝ | Jerome Vered | Regular | 5/21/92 |
| $68,000 | Andy Richter | Celebrity | 9/17/09 | |
| 27 | $66,600 | Skyler Hornback | Kids | 7/31/13 |
| 28 | $65,600 | Austin Rogers | Regular | 10/2/17 |
| 29 | $65,200* | Doug Lach | Regular | 7/7/00 |
| 30 | $62,000* | John Skelton | Regular | 7/1/98 |
| 31 | $61,200*✝ | Frank Spangenberg | Regular | 1/15/90 |
| 32 | $59,381 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/28/19 |
| 33 | $58,800* | Mark Born | Regular | 6/21/91 |
| 34 | $58,612 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/30/19 |
| 35 | $58,200 | Arthur Chu | Regular | 2/27/14 |
| 36 | $57,198 | Michael Bilow | Regular | 3/31/15 |
| 37 | $56,400 | Elyse Mancuso | Teen F2 | 5/11/12 |
| 38 | $56,000* | Jason Parker | Regular | 6/12/00 |
| 39 | $55,600*✝ | Kevin Frear | Regular | 7/5/88 |
| $55,600*✝ | Bob Blake | Regular | 9/7/89 | |
| 41 | $55,300 | Pat Sajak | Celebrity | 1/21/10 |
| 42 | $55,099 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 11/24/04 |
| 43 | $55,000 | Mark Runsvold | Regular | 7/18/11 |
| 44 | $54,800* | Michael Daunt | Regular | 12/4/95 |
| 45 | $54,322 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/10/19 |
| 46 | $54,017 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/29/19 |
| 47 | $53,200* | Bruce Naegeli | Regular | 7/20/88 |
| 48 | $52,200* | Karl Coryat | Regular | 6/24/96 |
| 49 | $52,108 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 5/23/19 |
| 50 | $52,002* | Matt Morris | Teen F2 | 2/18/94 |
| 51 | $52,000✝ | Brian Weikle | Regular | 4/14/03 |
| $52,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/9/04 | |
| $52,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/12/04 | |
| $52,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/22/04 | |
| 55 | $51,999 | Zach Blumenfeld | Teen QF | 11/3/09 |
| 56 | $51,000* | Garrett Simpson | Regular | 1/31/89 |
| $51,000 | Matt Jackson | Regular | 10/12/15 | |
| 58 | $50,845 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/8/19 |
| 59 | $50,800*✝ | Harvey Becker | Regular | 11/7/85 |
| $50,800 | Joon Pahk | Regular | 10/4/11 | |
| 61 | $50,000✝ | Myron Meyer | Regular | 9/5/02 |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 6/10/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 6/15/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/16/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 9/17/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 11/4/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 11/25/04 | |
| $50,000 | Roger Craig | TOC F1 | 11/14/11 | |
| $50,000 | Matt Jackson | Regular | 10/09/15 | |
| 70 | $49,998* | Michael Arnone | Regular | 1/11/01 |
| 71 | $49,900 | Philip Tiu | Regular | 3/15/16 |
| 72 | $49,699 | Kevin Joyce | Regular | 4/15/09 |
| 73 | $49,600* | Joe Gurski | Teen F2 | 5/17/96 |
| $49,600 | James Holzhauer | Regular | 4/26/19 | |
| 75 | $49,400* | Steve Chernicoff | Regular | 9/7/94 |
| 76 | $49,000 | Kunle DeMuren | Kids | 9/18/02 |
| 77 | $48,801 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 6/25/04 |
| 78 | $48,800* | Andy Richter | Celebrity | 11/16/99 |
| 79 | $48,799 | Matt Caruso | Regular | 4/24/03 |
| 80 | $48,600 | Jack Feerick | Regular | 1/28/09 |
| 81 | $48,002* | India Cooper | Regular | 12/17/91 |
| 82 | $48,001 | Eric R. Backes | Regular | 2/11/19 |
| 83 | $48,000* | Jerome Vered | Regular | 5/18/92 |
| $48,000* | Matt Zielenski | Teen F1 | 2/16/95 | |
| $48,000* | Dan Melia | Regular | 9/4/97 | |
| $48,000 | Mark Runsvold | Regular | 7/15/11 | |
| 87 | $47,600*✝ | Elise Beraru | Regular | 10/3/84 |
| 88 | $47,000* | Eric Prosser | Regular | 3/10/98 |
| 89 | $46,801 | Emma Boettcher | Regular | 6/3/19 |
| 90 | $46,800* | Matt Handel | Regular | 9/8/94 |
| $46,800 | Leah Greenwald | UTOC 1 | 3/15/05 | |
| 92 | $46,600 | Maria Wenglinsky | Regular | 11/1/05 |
| 93 | $46,599 | Tim Kutz | Regular | 02/17/16 |
| 94 | $46,000* | Bob Beers | Regular | 4/7/88 |
| $46,000* | Matt Handel | Regular | 9/12/94 | |
| $46,000* | Jon Stewart | Celebrity | 11/17/99 | |
| 97 | $45,598* | Frank Spangenberg | Regular | 1/10/90 |
Thanks to Robert K S for requesting the ✝ marking.
Edits:
3 Apr 2015: Stefan Goodreau pointed out this archived Sony Pictures site, which listed six early high scores not present in the J! Archive.
20 Apr 2015: updated with info about Matt Handel, as pointed out by Stefan based on intel from a trustworthy source.
22 Mar 2016: thanks to Joey Palumbo for sending me this archived page, which lists complete scores for most of the early tournaments. It included the $26,001 pre-doubled haul by Matt Morris in the 1994 Teen Finals.
Awesome! If you have the time, the one improvement I think would be neat would be to add a dagger for those who at one time held the No. 1 spot. You might do two different notations, one for those who, like Myron Meyer, held the record absolutely but not relative to doubled-dollar record holders.
The Jeopardy site’s Hall of Fame for big one-day winners comprises those with $30,000 or more, but pre-doubling (and a little post-, too) it used to be a list (albeit an incomplete one) of people who scored at least $23,800. (That total belonged to Elise Beraru, the first five-time champion.) Here’s a Wayback Machine cache with the old list, containing a few unarchived totals and some more familiar names: https://web.archive.org/web/20021001202114/http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/jeopardy/cont/winners_list_day_totals.html
Elise Beraru’s high score was in 1984, not ’85. And I’ve already told you on Facebook, but I’m putting it here for the general public: a player named Matt Handel scored $23,400 on the day after Steve Chernicoff’s big fifth win, and $23,000 two games later.
Thanks for the nudge – updated.
Hi, it’s Matt Handel. Thanks for the shout-out, Stefan. Day 1 was a lock, so I bet only $5,000 on a pre-Final Jeopardy score of $18,400. Day 3 was pretty wild: I was behind going into Final Jeopardy. I had $11,500 and my opponent had $12,000. I bet everything and got the question right. He bet the appropriate amount, wrote down the correct answer, and then CROSSED IT OUT to write in the incorrect answer.
BTW, day 4 just stunk. I must have been tired–none of us cracked $10,000 during the game and all three of us got Final Jeopardy wrong. The winner that day took home $899.
I’m giving Bob Beers an honorable mention for likely being the only person who made this list despite getting Final Jeopardy wrong. (Jack Lechner could have done it too, but… http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3711)
If you’re going to do a chart with all these colors in it, please explain what they mean!
They just match up with the type of game (regular, tournament, etc.)
What does it mean when a contestant’s name is in green?
jdgalt That’s a link…
Please forgive my ignorance but I do not understand your statement:”Also: at the request of Robert K S, I’ve marked scores that were unadjusted records at the time with a cross ✝.” What do you mean?
See the first comment—it’s from Robert K S.
They just hit 65,000 today!
I noticed quite a few scores missing from this list, including but not limited to:
– Donna Brown on December 22, 2017 ($45,600)
– Eric R. Backes on February 11, 2019 ($48,001)
– Team Brad on February 20-21, 2019 ($49,800)
where is James Holzhauer’s 100k+ score?
James Holzhauer not only has the #1 position at $110,914, but he also has the #2 position at $89,158.
A few days later, with James Holzhauer holding all 10 of the 10 highest scores, that $89,158 now sitting at #9, it’s become clear that comparison to other players is less instructive than comparison to what’s theoretically possible, and how the arrangement of future Jeopardy! tournaments might be altered in response, limiting what’s theoretically possible.
The maximum possible hasn’t changed since 2001.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Jeopardy/comments/9yxgr5/maximum_and_minimum_possible_scores/
James Holzhauer has them thinking maybe doubling the clue values in 2001 was a mistake. It gives him, and everyone aspiring to follow his lead, a lot to wager. The significance of the table above isn’t that he’s had some big days, it’s that he’s averaged something like $75K/day for > 3 weeks with no end in sight, legitimizing a high-stakes strategy that could significantly increase payouts even after he’s gone. If that’s offset by excitement, eyeballs & ad revenue, all to the good, but if not…
“The Man Who Broke The Bank At Culver City”.
Nah, they still have The Bank of John Marick. 😉
(I’ll leave you to figure out that reference. It’s not too hard.)
After nearly a month without update the news (30 May 2019) is that James Holzhauer now holds 20 of the 1st 22 ranks, including all of the 1st 15.
This table started out much smaller (50), but as names were added, none (I think) fell off the back of the wagon. That’s good because otherwise it would soon show very few names. It would be sad to lose Frank Spangenberg, whose name is currently on rank 30. Matt Jackson would already be gone.
Donna Brown won $45,600 on 12/22/2017, and was rerun on 6/1/2019 on the Saturday rerun
Strange the highest winner not mentioned once.