CrossFit Games

2023 CrossFit Games Season Prize Purse Increases from 2022, Offers Biggest Payout in History to this Year’s Champion

May 17, 2023 by
Photo Credit: CrossFit Games | (@crossfitgames)
Enjoying Morning Chalk Up? Access additional exclusive interviews, analyses, and stories with an Rx membership.

On May 16, CrossFit LLC announced this season’s Semifinals and NOBULL CrossFit Games athlete prize purse has increased from last season with Semifinals paying out $431,000, and the Games $2.945 million across all divisions.

  • In comparison: This is an increase of $17,000 from the 2022 Semifinals, and of $100,000 from last year’s CrossFit Games. 

Worth noting: The biggest pay increases are going to the individual athletes. In fact, adaptive divisions ($160,000) and age-group payouts ($280,000) remain unchanged from last year, and there are only minor changes to team payouts. 

Three Notable Changes from 2022

Top 20 Games payout increases: Last year, for the first time in history, every single individual Games athlete received a cash prize (prior to that, only the top 20 individuals did). However, this also meant the top 20 did not see a prize purse boost in 2022. This year, they do.

  • The top 10 individual male and females at the Games this summer will each receive a $5000 pay increase from 2022, with the champions set to earn $315,000—the largest in history—and with second to sixth place taking home $125,000, $85,000, $60,000, $45,000, $40,000 respectably.
  • After that, the pay increase slows a bit, with seventh to 10th place finishers seeing a $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 boost from last season respectively. 
  • Meanwhile, eleventh through 40th will receive the same payout as 2022, with 11th receiving $20,000, decreasing each placement all the way to 40th ($2,250).

Semifinals Individual increases: Last year, Semifinals payouts didn’t change from the 2021 season, and, in fact, were the same as the 2018 Regionals for individuals, leading some to question whether CrossFit should be offering more.

  • CrossFit arguably listened to the noise, as this year’s men’s and women’s Semifinals winners in the two North American and European Semifinals will earn twice as much as they did last year ($10,000, up from $5,000).
  • Further, second to fifth this year will take home $7,000, $5,000, $4,000 and $3,000 respectively—up from $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 in 2022—and with each additional Games qualifier earning $2,000.
  • The athletes in the other Semifinals—Oceania, South America, Asia and Africa—however will receive the same amount as last season: $5,000 for first, $4,000 for second and $3,000 for third.

Games Team increases: This year’s team payouts don’t look much different than last, where CrossFit paid out the top 10 teams at the Games for the first time. Prior to that, only the top five teams earned cash prizes. However, there is one small change this season.  

  • The second to fifth place teams at the Games will receive $5,000 each more than last season ($75,000, $45,000, $30,000 and $25,000 respectively), while the team champion will, once again, earn $100,000.

The big picture: When it comes to money, people are always going to criticize, and always going to want more, but it’s worth remembering where we came from to appreciate the progress CrossFit has made to help professionalize the sport in the last 16 years. With a couple exceptions—namely during the pandemic—the overall prize purse has steadily increased, and has extended to more athletes each year, and this season is no exception. 

And for those OGs who remember the first CrossFit Games in 2007 on the ranch in Aromas, CA—when Dave Castro pulled out a wad of $500 cash to hand to winners James Fitzgerald and Jolie Gentry—and the growth of our sport has to be considered something to be proud of.

Get the Newsletter

For a daily digest of all things CrossFit. Community, Competitions, Athletes, Tips, Recipes, Deals and more.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.