Money winning game shows to sign up to when you’ve just had enough

They say you should never take shortcuts in life. “The best things in life don’t come easy.” But if we’ve learnt anything from Slumdog Millionaire it's that going on to a gameshow to win a bucket load of money isn’t exactly the easy route.

But if you haven’t got a series of traumatising flashbacks to rely on for your TV debut, you’ll have to do your research and find another programme.

So without further ado, turn off that LinkedIn job ad notification and cancel your commuters travel card. We’ve put together a list of global game shows you can go on that have a hefty amount of cash at the finish line.

All you’ll have to do is train everyday for the next few weeks. No biggie.

P.s we should point out that all money you win on reality tv, a game show or the lottery will be subject to tax. Bummer. So if you’re bouncing abroad to win your millions, consider sending them back to your home country using Wise.

$$ Transfer my winnings baby $$

Love Island prize money

Let’s start with the mother of money winning game shows. Love Island of course. If you aren’t familiar with the format, a bunch of attractive 20-year-olds get thrown into a villa and compete to win £50,000 by “coupling up” with a partner. There’s a lot more cheating and fake tan thrown in the mix, but you get the point.

So, what do you have to do to pocket the £50,000 Love Island prize money? It’s pretty simple. Just hit the gym every day, wax your entire body, order a lot of neon swimwear and learn to say “can I pull you for a chat” quickly ten times without stuttering.

The show was brought to us by the beautiful brains of British T.V writers, but you can now apply to go on Love Island across the globe, with the franchise stretching as far as Australia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Poland…the list goes on.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire money

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is another game show of British origin that’s spread its wings across the world. We’re talking Spain, we’re talking Sri Lanka, we’re talking Sweden. It’s everywhere.

In India they call it “Kaun banega crorepati” and for all the Brazilians out there it's ‘Quem quer ser um milionário.’ To win the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” money contestants have to answer a series of questions without a time limit. As they get further into the questions, the amount of money they can win increases in value. The maximum amount of money you can win depends on what country you’re playing in. So if you’re playing in the U.K. it’s £1,000,000 and if you’re playing in India it’s 70 million rupees.

The largest amount of money ever won also varies on a country to country basis but the biggest prize in Brazil was 300,000 BRL.

How much do X Games winners make?

Ok so, in all honesty, I hadn’t heard of the X Games before. But apparently it’s a pretty big deal so here we go. The X Games is an extreme sports event that takes place every year in the states and has been running for about 27 years now.

It’s basically the extreme sports version of the Olympics, but as well as a gold, silver or bronze medal, you’ll also take home a cash prize. The X Games take place in Summer and Winter and have expanded to Asia and have taken place in Barcelona, Munich, Tignes and Iguaçu too.

So, how much do X Games winners make? The prize money varies depending on what place you come in and which games you’re taking part in location wise, but in the States, the top prize is $50,000 and this number decreases to $1,000 for 10th place.

That’s all well and good but what sports will you have to become pro in to win something? You could take up BMX freestyling, how about skateboarding? Or maybe snowboarding down a superpipe is more your thing? Didn’t think so.

Is it worth doing the Postcode Lottery?

We wouldn’t normally give limelight to something like the lottery, but this one’s for charity. The People’s Postcode Lottery is a subscription based lottery in the U.K, Sweden and the Netherlands. Referred to as the “Postcode Loteri” in the land of Stroopwafel and Bitterballen, the Postcode Lottery asks for £10 a month for the chance to win a monthly prize and up to £500,000.

So far, the Dutch Postcode Lottery has raised €35.1 million for refugees.

Is it cake? Or is it cash?

We couldn’t write about game shows without saying hey to the notorious “Is it Cake?” series on Netflix.

Basically, if you’re going to enter this competition you’ll need to learn how to make cakes that look like shoes, designer handbags and hats. Not sure Mary Berry can help you there.

Each episode, contestants create a cake that looks identical to a chosen object and judges have to guess which one is the cake out of five items. You get the opportunity to win $10,000 per episode and a grand total prize at the end of $50,000.

While we’re here, let’s give a shout out to the other food-based prize show from Japan “Candy or not Candy” where they literally made contestants stick inanimate objects in their moves to figure out whether or not it was candy. What a wonderful world we live in.

Well, there we have it. We’ve supplied you with a bunch of ways to drop your 9 to 5 job and earn some big bucks. Good luck.