Who Wants to be a Millionaire? contestants who won the top prize when the UK show launched in 1998 would have been able to buy 13 homes, but today the effects of inflation means the £1million top prize would only buy four houses, reveals analysis by travel money specialists No1 Currency.

With filming for the UK’s upcoming 2023 series now wrapped up, No1 Currency have run the numbers to find out just how far £1m can stretch in the current economy.

As the UK continues to battle the cost of living crisis and the inflation rate still in double figures at 10.1%, the six-figure prize is worth significantly less than it did when the game show first made its debut.

The £1million top prize is now worth almost half what it was, with the current sum being worth the equivalent of £562,809 in 1998. For those who bagged the top prize back then, their £1million winnings would now be worth £1.78m in today’s money.

In terms of purchasing power, the average house price in February 2023 sat at £257,406. This means that £1m today would purchase four three-bedroom semi detached homes. Whereas in 1998 – with the average house price estimated at about £72,500 – the same figure could have been used to purchase 13 properties.

Despite contestants getting less for their money, a quarter of a century after the first ever episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? aired on British TV, it remains the world’s most successful gameshow – broadcast in more than 120 countries and territories.

The good news for British quizzers is that the UK version still offers the biggest top prize.

Analysis by No1 Currency has produced a league table to pinpoint which countries are the biggest winners when it comes to prize money.1

Even though the Pound has weakened against many foreign currencies since the show launched in 1998, the UK’s £1m top prize is still the world’s biggest. When the US version first aired in August 1999, America’s $1m top prize was worth £623,700. Someone winning the US show’s jackpot today would walk away with 33% more at over £831,000.

The jump in prize money has been even bigger in Germany, where the show has never been off air – and has had the same host – since September 1999. The top prize in Germany’s first series was 1m Deutschmarks, then worth £329,900. Now the German jackpot is 1m Euros and is worth more than twice as much at over £887,000.

While the Eurozone countries in joint second place in the global ranking all offer a top prize of one million, in some currencies the jackpot has been much bigger. The Indian version of the show, immortalised by the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, increased its top prize to 75m Rupees last year to mark the 75th anniversary of Indian independence.2

But the biggest prize of all – at least in terms of zeros – is in Chile. Just one person, a 29-year-old history teacher named Gonzalo Miranda, has won the 100m Peso top prize offered by the show’s Chilean version.3 However his winner’s cheque, complete with eight zeros, would today be worth a more modest sounding £105,000.

The smallest top prize of all is on offer in Sri Lanka, where the 3m Rupee jackpot is currently worth less than £7,000 after the Sri Lankan currency plunged in value last year. The Sri Lankan Rupee has dropped by 37.5% against the Pound in the past 12 months alone.