What’s Behind Snooker’s Sudden Surge of 147s?

When does a 147 turn into a 180? When Ronnie O’Sullivan feels like rewriting history yet again.

In a season where maximum breaks — once treated with the same suspicion as a Himalayan Yeti sighting — keep popping up under the TV lights, O’Sullivan reminded everyone who still wears the crown. His second 147 in barely two hours at the Saudi Arabia Masters in August delivered a record £180,333 bonus haul.

As he heads toward his 50th birthday in December, that wild, fearless streak is still firing. Three decades after the famous five-minute maximum at the Crucible, he’s still the sport’s biggest draw.

But O’Sullivan isn’t the only one charting the perfect route around a table. The professional tour has already produced 25 maximums in the 2025 calendar year, smashing the previous record of 14 set in 2024.

Chang Bingyu’s 147 in a UK Championship qualifier in Wigan pushed the 2025–26 season tally to a record 16 — and the campaign only began in late June.

Shaun Murphy has cranked out two maximums this year, a reminder that the 2005 world champion and current Masters winner still has the touch. Ireland’s Aaron Hill has matched him with two of his own. Hill’s only world number 43, but he’s beaten Judd Trump and O’Sullivan, and he’s clearly not finished making noise.

So what’s behind this blitz of perfection? And where does the sport go once its “final frontier” has been breached?

PLAYER INSIGHT: THE 147 MINDSET

Shaun Murphy on the moment:

“When you're on a maximum, everyone in the room knows… the whole room goes silent. Everyone's focus zooms in on you.”

On whether the magic is gone:

“I don’t think so… To have the personal challenge of 'let's see how far down the 147 journey you can get' is special.” (He even made one in the Shoot Out after “three or four double gin and tonics”).

Aaron Hill on accessibility:

“There will be a lot of players who haven't had one. It was always a goal to have my name on the board… The buzz is great.”

THE TIPPING POINT: 2025

This year has rewritten history. 25 maximum breaks have already been made on the professional tour, shattering the previous calendar-year record (14 in 2024). The 2025-26 season alone has seen 16—a new record with eight months still to play.

The Catalyst: Ronnie O'Sullivan's August feat in Saudi Arabia—two 147s in under two hours, earning a single-event bonus record of £180,333.

Some all-time greats never made a single maximum: Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor, Ray Reardon, Terry Griffiths, Joe Johnson. Davis stopped at one. Yet Hill, at 23, made two in four weeks. He laughs at the idea of Higgins not having one. To him, a 147 is almost a rite of passage.

And the big question: if players are racking them up, is Hill suddenly rich? Not exactly. His maxis came at events with modest high-break prizes and no big bonuses. Worse, he had to split the money because others made maximums in the same tournaments. As for a secret “147 club” on WhatsApp? Hill doesn’t buy it. “Players aren’t that friendly,” he says.

How the greats keep making them

Murphy explains the mindset: spot the chance early. It’s a bit like starting a round of golf with a run of birdies — the possibility announces itself. If the black is free to both pockets and the reds are open, the radar starts pinging.

He still loves the one he made in the Shoot Out, where he tried to build a 147 from the very first pot. He admits the gin and tonics in hospitality helped take the edge off. In high-pressure arenas like Ally Pally, the buzz is unmistakable: the moment the chance is on, the whole room knows. The air changes.

Are maximums losing their magic? Murphy doesn’t think so. The feeling — the silence, the tension, the sense that the whole crowd is holding its breath with you — still lands like a punch.