Jeopardy! tournament payouts

I've long had a sheet in an Excel workbook that details, season by season, the payouts in each of the long-standing Jeopardy! tournaments. Thus I figured, why shouldn't I share this data with everybody?

The information presented below essentially is but a restatement of that compiled at J! Archive's prizes page; I'm incredibly grateful to Robert K S, Andy Saunders, and the rest of the incomparable team at the Archive for the work they do day in and day out on behalf of our beloved game.

In the first Tournament of Champions in Season 2, "Tot" refers to the two-day totals of the first and second runners-up in the final. A year later in 1986, both the non-winning finalists finished the two-day total-point affair with less than $5,000; upon a petition of third-place finisher Marvin Shinkman, their totals were raised to that level, and when more tournaments were brought in later that season, they included guaranteed minimums for second and third place. That decision endured through Season 38; those guaranteed minimums are the values listed in the table below. If a player's two-day aggregate total exceeded their minimum, the total score was what they were paid. Here's a compilation of when those minimums were surpassed.

From Season 39 going forward, payouts to finalists are fixed amounts.

The Seniors Tournament, contested in Seasons 3-12, had the same payouts as the Teen Tournaments in those seasons. In Seasons 23 and 35, two Teen Tournaments were played; the stakes were the same in both tournaments in each season.

Throughout the table below, the prize values are stated in thousands of dollars, except in cells containing an "M," which denotes value stated in millions.

Seasons 1-38: ToC and "traditional" tournaments

Season Tournament of Champions Teen Tournament College Championship Teachers Tournament /
Professors Tournament
1 2 3 SF QF 1 2 3 SF QF 1 2 3 SF QF 1 2 3 SF QF
1 No special play in the inaugural season
2 100 Tot Tot 5 1
3 100 5 5 5 1 25 5 5 5 1
4 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
5 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
6 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
7 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
8 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
9 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
10 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
11 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
12 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1
13 100 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 10 7.5 5 2.5
14 100 15 10 5 2.5 25 10 7.5 5 1 25 15 10 5 2.5
15 100 15 10 5 2.5 25 15 10 5 2.5 25 15 10 5 2.5
16 100 15 10 5 2.5 25 15 10 5 2.5 50 15 10 5 2.5
17 50 15 10 5 2.5 50 15 10 5 2.5
18 100 15 10 5 2.5 50 20 15 5 2.5 50 15 10 5 2.5
19 250 50 25 10 5 50 20 15 5 2.5 50 15 10 5 2.5
20 75 25 15 5 2.5 50 25 15 5 2.5
21 250 50 25 10 5 75 25 15 5 2.5 100 50 25 10 5
22 250 100 50 10 5 75 25 15 5 2.5 100 50 25 10 5
23 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
24 250 100 50 10 5 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
25 250 100 50 10 5 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
26 250 100 50 10 5 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
27 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
28 250 100 50 10 5 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
29 250 100 50 10 5 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
30 75 25 15 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
31 250 100 50 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
32 250 100 50 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
33 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
34 250 100 50 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
35 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
36 250 100 50 10 5 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
37 250 100 50 10 5
38 100 50 25 10 5

Seasons 39-present: ToC and "postseason" tournaments

Season Tournament of Champions Second Chance Champions Wildcard Invitational Tournament
1 2 3 SF QF 1 2 3 SF 1 2 3 SF QF 1 2 3 SF QF
39 250 100 50 10 5 35 20 10 *
40 250 100 50 10 5 35 20 10 * 100 50 25 10 5 100 50 25 10 5
41 250 75 75 10 5 35 15 15 * 100 40 40 10 5 150 50 50 10 5

The winners of the two Season 39 Second Chance competitions also received berths in the 2022 Tournament of Champions. In Seasons 40 & 41, Second Chance winners qualified into a subsequent Champions Wildcard event, and Champions Wildcard winners qualified into the ToC.
* Losing semifinalists received the same amounts awarded to runners-up in regular play — $2000 for second and $1000 for third in Season 39 (2022); $3000 for second and $2000 for third thereafter.

Super Jeopardy! (1990)

1 2 3 SF QF
250 50 25 10 5

Tenth Anniversary Tournament (1993)

1 2 3 SF
Tot + 25 10 7.5 5

The champion received their combined two-day total in the final plus $25,000; numbers shown represent guaranteed minimums for the first and second runners-up.

International Championship (1997)

1 2 3 SF
25 10 7.5 5

Numbers shown represent guaranteed minimums for the first and second runners-up.

Teen Reunion Tournament (1998)

1 2 3 4 P
50 15 10 7.5 5

The fourth-place player was the semifinal winner with the lowest total score (only the three highest winning scores advanced from that round to the final).

International Championship (2001)

1 2 3 SF
50 15 10 5

Numbers shown represent guaranteed minimums for the first and second runners-up.

Million Dollar Masters (2002)

1 2 3 SF QF
1M 100 50 25 10

Ultimate Tournament of Champions (2005)

1 2 3
Round 1 15 5
Round 2 20 10
Round 3 30 15
Semifinals 50 30 20
Final 2M 500 250

In the table above, italics denotes a value that is a guaranteed minimum (winners in Rounds 1-3, and all players in the semifinals). Like J! Archive, each round of the tournament is listed separately because winnings were cumulative. For example, third-place finisher Jerome Vered won $389,801 in the UToC: $27,601 in Round 1, $30,000 in Round 2, $32,200 in Round 3, $50,000 in his semifinal (final score was $30,900); and $250,000 in the final.

The IBM Challenge (2011)

1 2 3
1M 300 200

All three competitors in this match pledged to donate part or all of their winnings to charity – Watson's split between World Vision and World Community Grid, half of Ken Jennings's to VillageReach, and half of Brad Rutter's to the Lancaster County Community Foundation.

Battle of the Decades (2014)

1 2 3 SF QF 1R
1M 100 50 25 10 5

All-Star Games (2019)

1 2 3 WC 1R
1M 300 100 75 50

The figures in the table above represent the payout to each team, split equally between the three members.

Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time (2020)

1 T2
1M 250

Because the two runners-up were both awarded the same payout, I consider Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer to have jointly finished in second place, behind Ken Jennings.

National College Championship (2022)

1 2 3 4 SF QF
250 100 50 35 20 10

The fourth-place player was the semifinal winner with the lowest total score (only the three highest winning scores advanced from that round to the final).

High School Reunion Tournament (2023)

1 2 3 SF QF
100 50 25 10 5

Jeopardy! Masters (2023, 2024, 2025)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7-9
500 250 150 100 75 50 15

The seventh to ninth places apply only to the 2025 event.

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