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Tens of thousands of trivia buffs have had the chance to put their knowledge to the test on national television by competing on Jeopardy! over the decades. Most of them have seen their time on the show come to an end after a single episode, but there are some champions who’ve managed to string together some very impressive runs.
No one has won more games in a row on Jeopardy! than these contestants
Jeopardy! has a history stretching back to 1964, which is when it debuted as a daytime game show hosted by Art Fleming. The original run came to an end in 1975, but it was resurrected in 1984 as a syndicated show helmed by Alex Trebek, who spent more than 35 years behind the podium before passing away in 2020.
There was once a time when contestants were limited to a maximum of five wins in a row, an achievement that was marked with an automatic invite to the Tournament of Champions. However, that limit was removed at the start of September in 2003, which ushered in a new era where so-called “super champions” got the opportunity to earn some serious money if they were able to go on a tear.
Plenty of contestants have taken advantage since that shift, including the people who’ve managed to win at least 20 games in a row before being knocked off.
Before we dive in, I should note that “Total Winnings” (and money per game) does not reflect the consolation prize they received in the episode that brought their streak to an end.
8. Julia Collins: 20 Games
Sony Pictures Television
Total Winnings: $428,100 ($21,405 per game)
Julia Collins made her Jeopardy! debut on April 21, 2014. She was a relatively conservative player who was still able to win more than half of her games in runaway fashion (meaning she had a theoretically insurmountable lead heading into Final Jeopardy!) despite rarely taking big swings when landing on a Daily Double.
The supply chain professional from Kenilworth, Illinois was in second place heading into the final round of what ended up being her final game on June 2nd, and she finished in third with $0 after failing to answer a question concerning “the last person to win an Oscar for adapting his own novel” (John Irving for Cider House Rules). However, she would not have been able to beat the eventual winner, who answered correctly.
Collins is also at the center of a Jeopardy! love story, as she eventually tied the knot with Roger Craig, the seven-day champion from 2010 who once held the record for single-game winnings with $77,000 before it was repeatedly obliterated by another player who makes an appearance on this list.
7. Cris Pannullo: 21 Games
Sony Pictures Television
Total Winnings: $748,286 ($35,633 per game)
Cris Pannullo won $5,000 competing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2018, and it’s safe to say he fared a bit better when he appeared on Jeopardy! for the first time on September 30, 2022.
He kicked off his run with four runaway victories, and his 21st game on December 6th was just the fifth time he didn’t have things in the bag after two rounds. That ended up coming back to bite the customer success operations manager from Ocean City, New Jersey, as he whiffed on a clue about the inspiration for William Shakespeare’s The Tempest en route to a third-place finish.
6. Mattea Roach: 23 Games
Sony Pictures Television
Total Winnings: $560,983 ($24,391 per game)
2022 was a big year for lengthy winning streaks on Jeopardy!, as Mattea Roach was one of three contestants who won at least 20 games in a row.
The tutor from Toronto, Ontario was able to pay off their student loans with a $32,001 haul in their first game on April 5th. That was also the most money someone hailing from Canada had won, although Roach set a new mark on that front at $42,001 in their 18th appearance.
The fact that the Final Jeopardy! clue on May 6th revolved around “USA” may have put Roach at a disadvantage, and she was unable to name the two people who lent their names to Atlanta’s Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A contestant from Georgia was unsurprisingly able to get that right and unseated the reigning champion by a single dollar.
5. Jamie Ding: 31 Games
Sony Pictures Television
Total Winnings: $882,605 ($28,471 per game)
Jamie Ding is the most recent addition to this list, and he put on a show while becoming just the fifth person in the history of Jeopardy! to win at least 30 games in a row.
Ding is a law student who wanted to be referred to as a “faceless” bureaucrat before settling for the standalone title, and he had a penchant for wearing orange as a nod to Princeton, the alma mater located in his current hometown of Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
He was a sniper on the buzzer who had a tendency to quickly pull out to a sizeable lead before you even realized what happened, and 23 of his wins came in runaway fashion. His first victory came on March 13, 2026, and his run ended on April 27th after he fell victim to a runaway courtesy of Greg Shahade.
4. James Holzhauer: 32 Games
Sony Pictures Television
Total Winnings: $2,462,216 ($76,944 per game)
The man known as “Jeopardy James” turned the game show on its head during an unreal run that began on April 4, 2019, as his penchant for chasing Daily Doubles to maximize his score and prevent his opponents from doing the same became the default strategy for many contestants that came in his wake.
The professional sports gambler from Las Vegas is the only person listed in the Top 10 when it comes to the most money won in a single game, and he set the all-time record with the $131,127 he took home in his 10th appearance.
The man who broke Roger Craig’s aforementioned record is second only to the first man on this list when it comes to all-time winnings, and he was ultimately outfoxed by another contestant who harnessed his signature board jumping before edging him out on a Shakespeare-adjacent question on June 3rd.
3. Matt Amodio: 38 Games
Sony Pictures TelevisionTotal Winnings: $1,518,601Matt Amodio currently holds the bronze medal for both the longest streaks in Jeopardy! history and the most money won over the course of a run, which the man who was a Ph. D student at Yale when he was competing began on July 21, 2021. He is just one of four people who've achieved millionaire status while competing on the standard version of the show, and he did so during a very unique period where six different people served as the host during games he competed in due to the de facto tryouts that were held in the wake of Trebek's passing. There were only six occasions where Amodio didn't earn a runaway. That included his losing effort on October 11th, where he was the only contestant to incorrectly guess Poland, not Austria, was annexed and divided into various territories by the Nazis in World War II. 2. Amy Schneider: 40 GamesSony Pictures Television
Total Winnings: $1,382,800 ($34,570 per game)
Amy Schneider was named “Most Likely To Appear On Jeopardy!” when she was in high school, and she not only fulfilled that prophecy but emerged as one of the most successful players of all time.
Schneider’s first game aired on November 17, 2021, and she became just the second person to win 40 games in a row with a victory on January 25th the following year. However, the good times came to an end the following day; she had a $10,000 lead heading into the final round, but lost for not knowing Bangladesh is the only country with an English name that ends with “H.”
1. Ken Jennings: 74 Games
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Total Winnings: $2,520,700 ($34,064 per game)
Ken Jennings is the Joe DiMaggio of Jeopardy!, as his record is shaping up to be the equivalent of the latter’s seemingly unbreakable 56-game hit streak when you consider no one has come close to breaking it since it officially came to an end on November 30, 2004 after beginning on June 2nd of that year.
Jennings, who lost on a fairly easy clue about H&R Block, was able to leverage his legendary run into his current gig as the host of Jeopardy!, the position he’s permanently held since the end of 2023.