Nominal vs present value
Local display: $2.9m · Rebased to 2024 USD via US CPI-U
How the total breaks down
Ranking prize money. World Championship winner's purse and major ranking earnings.
Exhibitions & endorsements. Global exhibition fees and sponsors paying for snooker's biggest crossover star.
Impact 98
- Made snooker's global exhibition circuit a multimillion business
- Proved personality could multiply a World title payday
- Set the modern commercial ceiling before China's Ding boom fully peaked
O'Sullivan's 2014-ish peak showed the Rocket brand was bigger than any single ranking list. Promoters from Britain to China paid for the name — a model every later star's exhibition rider still copies.
O'Sullivan's 2014 World title season stacked a Crucible cheque under a global exhibition economy that wanted him more than any spreadsheet of ranking points. At roughly $2.2 million it defined snooker's modern crossover ceiling.