<P> Since the genre began , many shows have offered prizes of large sums of money to contestants ; Teddy Nadler set the original monetary winnings record of $264,000 during his appearance on The $64,000 Challenge in 1957 . Nadler was not surpassed until 1980 , when Thom McKee won $312,700 on Tic - Tac - Dough . In 1999 , John Carpenter won $1,000,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire , becoming the first person to win a seven - figure prize on an American game show . Since then , many players have gone on to win that amount and even surpassed it . As of 2015 , Brad Rutter is the highest - earning American game show contestant of all time , having accumulated a total of $4,555,102 . He succeeded Ken Jennings as the highest - earning contestant by virtue of his victory on May 16 , 2014 , in the Jeopardy ! Battle of the Decades tournament . </P>
<P> Since the genre began , many shows have offered prizes of large sums of money to contestants ; Teddy Nadler set the original monetary winnings record of $264,000 during his appearance on The $64,000 Challenge in 1957 . Nadler was not surpassed until 1980 , when Thom McKee won $312,700 on Tic - Tac - Dough . In 1999 , John Carpenter won $1,000,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire , becoming the first person to win a seven - figure prize on an American game show . Since then , many players have gone on to win that amount and even surpassed it . As of 2015 , Brad Rutter is the highest - earning American game show contestant of all time , having accumulated a total of $4,555,102 . He succeeded Ken Jennings as the highest - earning contestant by virtue of his victory on May 16 , 2014 , in the Jeopardy ! Battle of the Decades tournament . </P>
who won the most money on a gameshow
who won the most money on a gameshow
Brad Rutter
Brad Rutter