A quarter of a century after the first ever episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? aired on British TV, the world’s most successful gameshow has been broadcast in more than 120 countries and territories; but the UK version still offers the biggest top prize.

With filming of the UK’s 2023 series now underway in Salford, the travel money specialists No1 Currency have run the numbers on the show’s overseas versions 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.