With players like James Holzhauer and Austin Rogers lighting up the Jeopardy! scoreboard with their gutty wages and record-setting single-day winnings, we were curious about the which contestants have took home the most money in one day of the popular trivia game show.
To keep things clean, we’re only including contestants from the “regular” Jeopardy — so this list doesn’t include any entries from Celebrity, College, Teens, Kids, or Tournament of Champion episodes. Without further ado, here’s the 20 times a player ended up winning the most money on Jeopardy in one single episode.
Highest Single-Day Winnings on One Jeopardy Episode
James Holzhauer has changed the game. In addition to having a perfect game where he answered correctly on all 41 of his answers, his current streak of wins continues to re-break and re-write his own single-day winning records.
| Rank | Winnings | Contestant | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $131,127 | James Holzhauer | 04/17/2019 |
| 2 | $130,222 | James Holzhauer | 05/27/2019 |
| 3 | $118,816 | James Holzhauer | 04/23/2019 |
| 4 | $110,914 | James Holzhauer | 04/09/2019 |
| 5 | $106,181 | James Holzhauer | 04/16/2019 |
| 6 | $101,682 | James Holzhauer | 05/01/2019 |
| 7 | $96,726 | James Holzhauer | 04/30/2019 |
| 8 | $90,812 | James Holzhauer | 04/22/2019 |
| 9 | $90,812 | James Holzhauer | 04/25/2019 |
| 10 | $89,229 | James Holzhauer | 05/20/2019 |
| 11 | $89,158 | James Holzhauer | 04/12/2019 |
| 12 | $86,905 | James Holzhauer | 05/21/2019 |
| 13 | $82,381 | James Holzhauer | 05/03/2019 |
| 14 | $80,006 | James Holzhauer | 04/19/2019 |
| 15 | $79,633 | James Holzhauer | 05/31/2019 |
| 16 | $77,000 | Roger Craig | 09/14/2010 |
| 17 | $75,000 | Ken Jennings | 07/23/2004 |
| 18 | $74,133 | James Holzhauer | 04/18/2019 |
| 19 | $73,621 | James Holzhauer | 04/24/2019 |
| 20 | $71,885 | James Holzhauer | 05/22/2019 |
| 21 | $69,033 | James Holzhauer | 05/29/2019 |
| 22 | $69,000 | Austin Rogers | 10/03/2017 |
| 23 | $68,000 | Jerome Vered | 05/21/1992 |
| 24 | $65,600 | Austin Rogers | 10/02/2017 |
| 25 | $65,200 | Doug Lach | 07/07/2000 |
| 26 | $62,000 | John Skelton | 07/01/1998 |
| 27 | $61,200 | Frank Spangenberg | 01/15/1990 |
| 28 | $59,381 | James Holzhauer | 05/28/2019 |
| 29 | $58,800 | Mark Born | 06/21/1991 |
| 30 | $58,612 | James Holzhauer | 05/30/2019 |
| 31 | $58,200 | Arthur Chu | 02/27/2014 |
| 32 | $57,198 | Michael Bilow | 03/31/2015 |
| 33 | $56,000 | Jason Parker | 06/12/2000 |
| 34 | $55,600 | Kevin Frear | 07/05/1988 |
| 34 | $55,600 | Bob Blake | 09/07/1989 |
| 35 | $55,099 | Ken Jennings | 11/24/2004 |
*last updated 05/29/2019 3PM EST
There’s definitely some big names on this list – Roger Craig, Ken Jennings, Arthur Chu and Doug Lach. One of the surprising things I noticed putting this together is that Jennings only makes the list twice despite winning 74 games. That says something about how Jennings played the game — steady and safe.
Looking further down The Final Wager’s list, Jennings might not be in the top fifteen as often as one would expect, but he’s all over this — having scored more than $50,000 on one day eleven times during his amazing run in 2004.
| Contestant | Money | Air Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ken Jennings | $75,000 | 07/23/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $55,099 | 11/24/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $52,000 | 7/9/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $52,000 | 7/12/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $52,000 | 7/22/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $50,000 | 6/10/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $50,000 | 6/15/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $50,000 | 7/16/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $50,000 | 9/17/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $50,000 | 11/4/2004 | |
| Ken Jennings | $50,000 | 11/25/2004 |
Good ol’ reliable Ken. Looking at his top eleven wins in terms of most money, he modestly and strategically bid so that he hit a round number — likely because no one was near him by the time Final Jeopardy rolled around.
This of course is before James Holzhauer burst onto the scene executing his record breaking strategy and demolishing all of Jennings’ one day totals.
That’s in complete contrast to Austin Rogers, who has made a name for himself by arbitrarily wagering HUGE amounts during Daily Doubles and winning them more often than not. Rogers has just six wins (as of October 3rd, 2017) and he finds himself on this list twice already, and in the top five in all of Jeopardy history.
So what’s the likelihood that a player will break the $100,000 barrier in one Jeopardy! episode?
