Ronnie O’Sullivan holds the record for maximum breaks, with 17, including two in a single match this season.
When does a 147 become a 180?
When Ronnie O’Sullivan is making history, that’s when.
In a year where snooker’s maximum break, once a rare feat, has become increasingly common, O’Sullivan has reaffirmed his unparalleled mastery.
At the Saudi Arabia Masters in August, O’Sullivan secured a record £180,333 in bonuses after achieving his second maximum in just two hours.
Approaching his 50th birthday in December, O’Sullivan’s audacious talent continues to distinguish him. Nearly three decades after his famed five-minute 147 at the Crucible, he remains a captivating draw.
Despite a surprising first-round defeat at the UK Championship in York, O’Sullivan is not alone in achieving maximum breaks.
An astounding 25 maximums have been recorded on the professional tour in 2025, surpassing the previous record of 14 in 2024.
Chang Bingyu’s 147 in a UK Championship qualifier in Wigan in November brought the 2025-26 season total to a record 16, during the campaign that began in late June.
Shaun Murphy of England, the 2005 world champion and this year’s Masters winner, has also recorded two maximums in 2025.
Ireland’s Aaron Hill has also achieved two 147s in 2025.
The world number 43 has secured victories against Judd Trump and O’Sullivan. Remember the name.
BBC Sport spoke with Murphy and Hill about the recent increase in maximum breaks.
Why are there so many maximum breaks, when the formula – 15 reds and blacks, followed by the colours – remains the same?
What is next if the code to what once was snooker’s final frontier has been cracked?
“In 1983, Moira Stuart announcing Cliff Thorburn’s 147 at the Crucible on the Six O’Clock News was a major event. Now, it might be overlooked because it’s just another 147′.”
That’s the view of Murphy, who is fourth on the all-time list with 10 maximums.
He is not wrong. Thorburn’s maximum defined 1983, alongside Steve Cram and Daley Thompson’s World Athletics Championship golds in Helsinki.
It was the second official maximum, following Steve Davis’s at the Lada Classic in Oldham 15 months prior, which won him one of the sponsor’s cars.
The 1980s, a decade filled with soap opera drama and larger than life characters, saw just eight 147s in total.
The current era is unmatched in quality.
A long-time Crucible spectator noted that “You were lucky to see a fifty break all day” at World Championship qualifiers in Stockport in the early 1980s. “People think it was the glory days, but the standard was terrible.”
Wales’ Jackson Page became the first player to record two 147s in a single tour match at this year’s World Championship qualifiers.
Although Page didn’t reach the Crucible, he made £167,000 in bonuses and £15,000 for reaching the final qualifying round – only £18,000 short of Mark Williams’ runner-up prize.
“Players are chasing their career records, and the tour provides incentives,” says Murphy.
“People are more aware of these challenges and are practicing for them.”
Alex Higgins, Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor, Joe Johnson, John Spencer, and Ray Reardon, all world champions, never recorded a maximum break on tour.
Davis only managed one.
Hill, however, made two in four weeks; the 23-year-old from Cork is astounded Higgins never had a maximum.
Hill says: “Many players haven’t had one. It was always a goal to add my name to the list. The buzz is amazing.
“Now, everyone on the tour is capable of making one. We’re almost expecting one at every tournament. We’re all spurring each other on.”
So, is Hill now wealthy? Not quite.
His maximums at the English Open and Xi’an Grand Prix included £5,000 high-break prizes, but no bonuses. The money was split with Ali Carter at the English Open and three ways in China.
Is there a 147 society on the tour? A WhatsApp group unlocked by a first maximum?
“There’s nothing like that. Players aren’t that friendly!” Hill says.
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Watch Murphy’s maximum break in Masters semi-final
If there is a knack to it, it’s seeing it early, like with a 59 in golf when you make a few birdies early and think ‘I’m on for something good here’.
If you come to the table early and take a couple of reds and couple of blacks, and you see the black’s available to both pockets and the reds aren’t on cushions, we all think ‘hang on a minute, there’s a 147 on here’.
I’ve always been proud of the one I made in the Shoot Out a couple of seasons ago because I tried to make it from the very first pot.
To have the personal challenge of ‘let’s see how far down the 147 journey you can get’, and then get it in the cauldron of the Shoot Out, was pretty special.
I think I’d had three or four double gin and tonics – that had something to do with it. It’s not quite as serious as some events and the hospitality was being well used.
When you’re on a maximum, everyone in the room knows it and it heightens their attention.
Everyone’s focus zooms in on you. When I made one at the Masters this year at Ally Pally the whole room went silent.
Are maximums losing their magic? I don’t think so.
Send us your questions
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Watch Ronnie O’Sullivan’s fastest 147 in history
Ronnie O’Sullivan makes 147 at UK Championship. Video, 00:08:51
Robertson makes 147 and wins UK title
Mark Allen hits first career 147 at UK Championship. Video, 00:01:21
Snooker awaits its first official maximum by a woman. China’s Bai Yulu recently recorded a 145 at the International Championship.
Having achieved two 147s in the same match, what about two in consecutive frames?
The 155 (a 147 plus eight points from a free-ball scenario, external at the start of a frame) has never been achieved in competition. Footage exists of Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh making one in practice.
Murphy says the 167 is “probably the next step”. At the Riyadh Season Championship, a player who follows a 147 with a 20-point golden ball will earn $1m (£760,000), snooker’s biggest prize.
Aaron Hill is tipped for a bright future, despite losing in the UK Championship qualifiers.
Murphy believes that there is a simple explanation for the rise in maximum breaks.
“I just think everyone’s getting better,” he says. “Some of the players down the rankings that the general public have never heard of, on their day they can beat anyone.”
The World Snooker Tour cites enhancements in the “quality and consistency of playing conditions”, crediting table-fitting teams and suppliers.
However, it is ultimately the players who are potting the balls.
Hill has two maximums, while O’Sullivan holds the record with 17.
Watch out Ronnie, he’s coming for you.
Hill says it in jest, but he relishes the chase.
“I believe I’ll be well up there with maximum breaks by the end of my career,” he says.
Hill and Murphy share the mindset that any frame could hold the promise of a maximum break.
Pot a red, followed by the black. Rinse and repeat.
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