Snooker players are amongst the richest sportspeople on the planet - a single World Championship title earns you a mind-boggling £500,000 and the winner of this week’s UK Championship will win a cool £250,000.
It’s a sport which has seen prize money soar in recent years thanks to television and sponsorship deals, with increasing interest in China and the Far East bolstering the tournament coffers even more.
Last year alone three players - Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson and Ronnie O’Sullivan - took home more than a million pounds in prize money.
It means that some of the greatest of all time who played in less lucrative times - including Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White and Steve Davis - aren’t even in the top five highest earners.
We’ve taken a look at the players who have won the most prize money in the history of the sport, with their true net worth being around 50 per cent more due to sponsorship, exhibition games, advertising deals, investments and media work.
Here are the 17 richest, as of December 2025, directly before the UK Championship.
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5. Mark Selby - £8,841,429
Mark Selby has forced Stephen Hendry out of the top five highest earners for the first time. He might have lost out to Luca Brecel at the 2023 world championships, despite scoring a 147 maximum in the final, but Mark Selby's bank manager won't have been too concerned by the loss - he's won nine Triple Crown titles, including four World Championships. Englishman Selby has won £8,841,429 in his career to date and still has plenty of winning years to come. | Getty Images
6. Stephen Hendry - £8,804,081
Scotland's Stephen Hendry still jointly holds the record for most world titles with Ronnie O'Sullivan. His seven world crowns helped him amass prize money of £8,804,081 before retiring from the sport. | Getty Images
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7. Neil Robertson - £7,993,045
The first non-Brititsh player to make this list, Australia's Neil Robertson is also the only player from outside the UK to have completed snooker's Triple Crown. That's helped him to earnings of 7,993,045. | Getty Images
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8. Shaun Murphy - £6,768,212
Since turning professional in 1998 Shaun Murphy has won prize money totalling £6,768,212. Nicknamed 'The Magician', he was world champion in 2005 - when he became only the third qualifier to win the title after Alex Higgins and Terry Griffiths. | Getty Images