Seth Wilson soars up the Jeopardy ranks, passes Arthur Chu in total wins

October 5, 2016 - Culture / Money

Seth Wilson is a a University of Georgia Ph.D. theater student living in Chicago and is the latest contestant making a name for himself on Jeopardy!

On October 4th, Seth Wilson won his 12th consecutive Jeopardy! match. With total winnings now over $265,000. The teacher is steadily climbing up the rankings joining recent winners to make waves in the last three years — including Matt Jackson, Julia Collins and Arthur Chu.

With his twelfth win in the bag, Wilson passed up Chu, the notorious Jeopardy! Champion that made waves with his unorthodox and jarring techniques, in total wins. Here are the players with the longest winning streaks (data coming from j-archive — the Jeopardy online resource)

Longest Winning Streaks on Jeopardy! (by Total Wins)

Rank	Contestant	Win	Year of Streak
1	Ken Jennings	74	2004
2	Julia Collins	20	2014
3	Dave Madden	19	2005
4	Matt Jackson	13	2015
5	Seth Wilson	12	2016
6	Arthur Chu	11	2014
7	Jason Keller	9	2011
7	Dan Pawson	9	2007-08
7	Buzzy Cohen	9	2016
10	Ben Ingram	8	2013
10	Tom Nissley	8	2010
10	Austin Rogers	8	2017
10	Tom Kavanaugh	8	2005-06
14	Jason Keller	7	2011
14	Joon Pahk	7	2011
14	Justin Bernbach	7	2009
14	Tom Walsh	7	2004
14	Stephanie Jass	7	2012
14	Keith Whitener	7	2012

Depending on how much he takes home in his next couple wins, Wilson is still behind Chu for a top five spot in all time winnings; approximately $30,000 behind Chu. And of course, after that it doesn’t get easier with Matt Jackson, Julia Collins and Dave Madden another $100,000 plus in front not to mention Ken Jennings 2.5 million over 74 wins. Take a gander at the creme de la creme of Jeopardy winnings:

Rank	Contestant	Most Winnings	Year of Streak
1	Ken Jennings	$ 2,520,700	2004
2	Dave Madden	$ 430,400	2005
3	Julia Collins	$ 429,100	2014
4	Matt Jackson	$ $411,612	2015
5	Austin Rogers	$ 306,900	2017
6	Arthur Chu	$ 298,200	2014
7	Seth Wilson	$ 265,002	2016
8	Tom Nissley	$ 235,405	2010
9	Roger Craig	$ 230,200	2010
10	Larissa Kelly	$ 223,597	2008
11	Jason Keller	$ 213,900	2011
12	Joon Pahk	$ 199,000	2011
13	Tom Walsh	$ 184,900	2004

The only two players that are on the total winnings list and not on the winning streak list above it are Larissa Kelly and Roger Craig, both of notched big winnings during their “short” six game winning streak.

Our bulleted list of winners, winnings and winning streaks only include “standard” Jeopardy! matches and do not include Tournament of Champions or Teen Jeopardy! wins. For that information, you can go here.