Scott Riccardi Now: 16 Straight Jeopardy! Wins and $455,000

Biography

The streak and how it ended

Jeopardy.com recorded his twelfth consecutive win on 18 July 2025, describing it as a sweep. A week later, on 25 July, the show reported the end of the run at sixteen games and $455,000.

The final game was close. Riccardi led through the first two rounds against Jonathan Hugendubler and Charlotte Cooper, then finished second after coming up short in Final Jeopardy!. Hugendubler took the win. That is the ordinary way a Jeopardy! streak ends: not by collapse, but by one clue at the end of an evening a champion was winning.

Where the run ranks

The show keeps a Leaderboard of Legends, and Riccardi entered it twice. His $455,000 placed him eighth for highest total winnings. His sixteen consecutive victories placed him tenth for the longest streaks.

Both numbers are the show's own. Appearing in the top ten of either list is rare across a programme that has televised a new champion nearly every weekday for decades; appearing in both at once takes a run that is long and lucrative at the same time, which means winning big as well as winning often.

What he said about it

His account of the final wager is the most human line in the coverage. 'I just kind of opened it up and looked at those numbers,' he said of the Final Jeopardy! board, 'and I was like, there's no way I'm hitting any of those.'

On the run as a whole he was similarly unguarded. 'This whole experience is just so surreal,' he told the show. 'It almost feels like it's going to be a thing where I'm just going to wake up back in New Jersey and none of it will have really happened.' The research record behind this page gives his home as Somerville, New Jersey, and his occupation as engineer, drawn from an encyclopedic list of contestants rather than from the dispatches cited here.

What comes after a streak

A long streak is a qualification as well as a record. The show invites its strongest regular-season champions to the Tournament of Champions, and the research record for this page has Riccardi as the top seed at the season 42 tournament.

That is a meaningful position and an unforgiving one. The tournament strips away the advantage that produces streaks in the first place - facing new players each night - and puts a champion against opponents who have all done the same thing. Nothing in the sources used here records how the tournament went.

What is documented and what is not

Documented by Jeopardy.com: his sixteen consecutive wins, his $455,000 in winnings, his twelfth win on 18 July 2025 and the end of the streak reported on 25 July, his eighth place for total winnings and tenth for consecutive wins on the Leaderboard of Legends, the players in his final game, and his own quotations.

Not documented in those dispatches: his age or date of birth, his occupation, his exact home town, his family, his buzzer and accuracy statistics, and his tournament results. His job as an engineer, his home in Somerville and his tournament seeding come from the research record. No IQ figure appears anywhere in this file.

Achievement Timeline

Scott Riccardi — every milestone on this page, in order.

2025

18 July: Jeopardy.com reports his twel18 July: Jeopardy.com reports his twelfth consecutive win, a sweep

2025

25 July: the show reports the end of h25 July: the show reports the end of his 16-game streak at $455,000

2025

Loses the final game to Jonathan HugenLoses the final game to Jonathan Hugendubler after leading through two rounds

2025

Enters the Leaderboard of Legends at eEnters the Leaderboard of Legends at eighth for winnings and tenth for consecutive wins

Watch: Scott Riccardi on camera

Who is Scott Riccardi? Inside Jeopardy!Jeopardy!

Historical Comparison

Person	Country	Milestone	Age / Stat
Emma Boettcher	United States	Ending James Holzhauer's 32-game Jeopardy! streak	Age 27
Jason Zuffranieri	United States	A maths teacher from Albuquerque won nineteen games in a row and half a mi	Age 43
Scott Riccardi	United States	Winning 16 consecutive Jeopardy! games in 2025	—
Cris Pannullo	United States	Winning 21 consecutive games of Jeopardy!	—
Ray Lalonde	Canada	Winning 12 consecutive games of Jeopardy! in December 2022	—

What is documented — and what is not

✓ Documented

Won 16 consecutive Jeopardy! games and $455,000; streak ended 25 July 2025
Eighth on the Leaderboard of Legends for winnings, tenth for consecutive wins
Beaten by Jonathan Hugendubler after leading through two rounds
Twelfth consecutive win reported as a sweep on 18 July 2025

? Unverified, disputed or wrong

His occupation, exact home town and tournament seeding come from the research record, not the cited dispatches
No age, date of birth, family or accuracy statistics appear in these sources
No Tournament of Champions result is documented here

Questions people ask about Scott Riccardi

How many Jeopardy! games did Scott Riccardi win?

Sixteen consecutive games, with the streak ending in July 2025.

How much did Scott Riccardi win?

$455,000, which placed him eighth on the show's all-time winnings leaderboard.

Who beat Scott Riccardi?

Jonathan Hugendubler. Riccardi led through the first two rounds of the game but came up short in Final Jeopardy!.

What does Scott Riccardi do for a living?

The research record for this page gives engineer, drawn from an encyclopedic list of contestants. The two show dispatches cited here do not state his occupation.