Snooker 147s: How Many Maximum Breaks, Who Has the Most and the Fastest

How a 147 adds up

Reds are worth 1 and must be followed by a colour. To score the maximum, every red has to be followed by the black, worth 7, and then the colours are cleared in order, yellow (2) to black (7).

Take a single pink instead of a black and the best possible break drops to 146. That is why commentators start talking about a maximum early: once a player is on, say, eight reds and eight blacks, every remaining shot has to be played for position on the black, whose spot is just above the pack near the top cushion. Thirty-six pots in a row, with no say over what the opponent left. The scoring rules behind all this are in snooker rules explained.

It goes wrong at the very end more often than you might think. At least nine players have missed the final black on 140, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh three times.

Who has made the most 147s

Sixteen players have made five or more official maximums:

Counts as of 2 November 2026. Stephen Hendry made his last at the 2012 World Championship, the tournament after which he retired.

Only four players are in double figures. O'Sullivan's span is the remarkable part: his first official 147 was in 1997 and his latest, two in the same match, came in August 2025.

Why there are so many more now

More than a third of all official 147s have come in the 2020s. The 2025/26 season produced 24, beating the previous record of 15 set the season before, and 2026/27 had six by 2 November. The likeliest reasons are simply more matches, with more tournaments and bigger qualifying draws, and higher scoring across the tour.

Firsts and records

The fastest 147 has its own footnote. For years Guinness World Records listed O'Sullivan's break at 5 minutes 20 seconds, until a 2017 investigation found the clock had been started too early on the BBC footage. Snooker has no official timing rule; timed from his first strike of the cue ball, the break took 5 minutes 8 seconds, the figure World Snooker and Guinness now use.

Fifteen maximums have been made at the Crucible itself, by eleven players; Hendry and O'Sullivan have three each. Another eight came in World Championship qualifying.

Breaks above 147

147 is the limit only in a normal frame. If a player fouls before any reds have been potted and leaves the opponent snookered on every red, the opponent gets a free ball: any colour can be nominated as a red, potted for 1 point and followed by a colour. That gives sixteen "reds" and a theoretical maximum of 155.

• 148: Jamie Burnett, UK Championship qualifying, 16 October 2004. The first break above 147 in professional competition.
• 153: Ronnie O'Sullivan against Ryan Day, World Open quarter-final, 20 March 2026. After a run of fouls by Day he potted the green as a free ball, then the black, and went on to the record.
• 155: Jamie Cope made one in practice in 2005. Nobody has made one in competition.

The free-ball rule itself is explained in snooker rules explained.

Chinese players and the 147

Twelve players from mainland China have made official maximums, 35 between them: Ding Junhui 7, Zhang Anda 5, Xiao Guodong 4, Liang Wenbo 3, Zhou Yuelong 3, Xu Si 3, Chang Bingyu 3, Fan Zhengyi 2, Si Jiahui 2, Cao Yupeng 1, Wu Yize 1, Zhao Xintong 1. Ding's 147 against Anthony Hamilton at the 2007 Masters, aged 19, made him the youngest player to make one on television. Zhang Anda made his in the final of the 2023 International Championship, one of the few made in a tournament final. Hong Kong's Marco Fu has five.

Chang Bingyu's three include one in qualifying for the 2025 UK Championship and another in qualifying for the 2026 World Championship. Together they earned him the £147,000 bonus described below.

Is there prize money for a 147?

Not a dedicated one, in 2026/27. Big 147 prizes were common in the 1980s and 1990s; O'Sullivan received £165,000 for his 1997 Crucible maximum, £147,000 for the break and £18,000 as the tournament's highest break. They were then cut back, which led to one famous protest: at the 2016 Welsh Open O'Sullivan took the pink off the last red and stopped at 146, saying the £10,000 prize was not worth a 147.

From 2023/24 WST paid a £147,000 bonus to any player who made two maximums in that season's Triple Crown events, later adding the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. It was won three times, by Jackson Page, O'Sullivan and Chang Bingyu, and WST dropped it for 2026/27. What remains is each event's high break prize, which a 147 almost always wins; the amounts are in snooker prize money 2026/27. Neither counts towards the world rankings.

FAQ

How many 147s have there been in snooker?

247 official maximum breaks in professional competition as of 2 November 2026. The 247th was made by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at the International Championship.

Who has the most 147s in snooker?

Ronnie O'Sullivan, with 17. John Higgins has 13, Stephen Hendry 11 and Shaun Murphy 10.

What is the fastest 147 in snooker?

Ronnie O'Sullivan's at the 1997 World Championship, against Mick Price: 5 minutes 8 seconds, timed from his first shot of the break.

What is the highest break in snooker?

In professional competition, 153, by Ronnie O'Sullivan at the 2026 World Open, made with a free ball. The highest possible is 155.

Has a woman ever made a 147?

Not in professional competition. Mink Nutcharut of Thailand made one in a practice match in 2019 and is believed to be the only woman to have made a maximum.

Related reading: Snooker Rules Explained · World Snooker Championship Winners · Snooker Prize Money 2026/27 · Snooker Break Building

Sources: counts, the list of players with five or more, records, breaks above 147 and prize history from Wikipedia's Maximum break article, which follows WST's list of all official 147s (as of 2 November 2026); Chinese players' totals counted from the same list; ages calculated from the dates in it; the 2026/27 prize position from wst.tv. This article contains no sponsored or affiliate links.