What is a Century in Snooker

  • By: Rob
  • Date: April 23, 2023
  • Time to read: 4 min.
Affiliate Disclaimer

LoveCueSports is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

What is a century in snooker has confused some newer fans and some veterans for a while. We plan on clearing things up with that very answer and offer some extra interesting information, such as who has the most century breaks in snooker and give you a list of snooker players with over 100 centuries.

With over 20,000 snooker centuries record in professional snooker, you may be deluded to consider such an achievement as commonplace among players. 

If you were to think that, you couldn’t be further from the truth, such a high number of centuries or century breaks is a testament to the skill level of the professional players. 

what is a century in snooker

Even with 20,000 centuries being recorded, that’s still a small number when compared to the amount of snooker frames record where a century could have been reached.

What is a century in snooker

Snooker is a point-based game, so as you may have guessed, 100 points are needed to achieve a century break in snooker.

This is only half the story, as them points need to be earned during a single sitting at the table.

Let me summarize what is a century in snooker. A century in snooker is achieved when a player is able to pot a total of 100 points or more in a single visit to the table. To achieve a century or a century break, 100 points must be accumulated over one visit, not over multiple visits to the table.

how to make a century in snooker, is achieved by a player potting a red, followed by a color, followed by a red – repeating this process until a 100 points are achieved or a century break without missing a shot.

The fastest way to achieve this would be to pot:

12 reds and 12 blacks consecutively then another red ball and finally the brown ball, in a single visit to the table.

The accumulation of this combination of balls would amount to 100 points.

The points gained would ensure you score a century break.

As you can see, to pot 26 balls consecutively without missing is not easy to achieve, even for professional snooker players.

There are other combinations of color balls you can pot to achieve a maximum, knowing the snooker ball values will help with that

Also consider that snooker is an extremely tactical game, if a player is unable to pot a ball while at the table then he may look to place you in a snookered position, making the chances to break build an even harder one.

Hopefully, that will give you some scope as to what is a century in snooker, but note that despite its difficulty, players do regularly get centuries.

In 2014, professional snooker player Neil Robertson became the first person to get a century of centuries in a single snooker season.

Even with such an achievement, he still falls far short of players like Steven Hendry and John Higgins in terms of the most century breaks in snooker.

Who has the most century breaks in snooker

Which snooker player has reached such an accolade? With only approximately (at the time of writing this) has 71 professional players had recorded as reaching the incredible milestone of a century of centuries, in other words, 100 or more century frames in snooker.

Now you have a better understanding of what is a century in snooker, you surely can appreciate the talent required to be the king of century breaks. So who has the most century breaks in snooker?

That would be none other than arguably one of the most talented players ever to play the beautiful game; Ronnie O’Sullivan.

How many centuries has Ronnie made? Well, he has smashed all the competition out of the water. He is the only player to score over 1000 century breaks. He beats this closest rival by more than 250-century breaks. As of writing this, he has recorded a total of 1,049 centuries.

Check out the man himself as he makes history as the first people to reach 1000 century breaks in snooker.

List of snooker players with over 100 centuries

As mentioned above, Ronnie is the player with the most century breaks in snooker, but what about the other players to achieve a 100 or more century breaks.

I have compiled a list of snooker players with over 100 centuries to their name

Our friends at snookerinfo have helped with this information.

A list of snooker players with over 100 centuries recorded over their professional careers.

#NameCountryNumber of centuries
1Ronnie O’SullivanENG1,049
2John HigginsSCOT790
3Stephen HendrySCOT775
4Judd TrumpENG713
5Neil RobertsonENG709
6Mark SelbyENG624
7Ding JunhuiCHINA532
8Shaun MurphyENG517
9Marco FuHK501
10Mark J WilliamsWALES486
11Stuart BinghamENG454
12Mark AllenN.IRE450
13Stephen MaguireSCO441
14Ryan DayWALES378
15Peter EbdonENG377
16Ken DohertyIRE346
17Barry HawkinsENG342
18Steve DavisENG338
19Matthew StevensWALES321
20Joe PerryENG320
21Jimmy WhiteENG319
22Allister CarterENG309
23Anthony HamiltonENG294
24David B GilbertENG280
25Ricky WaldenENG277
26Liang WenboCHINA259
27Mark DavisENG256
28Graeme DottSCOT227
29Fergal O’BrienIRE227
30Alan McManusSCOT227
31Tom FordENG222
32John ParrottENG221
33Dominic DaleENG219
34Michael HoltENG210
35Martin GouldENG210
36Kyren WilsonENG198
37Jack LisowskiENG184
38Stephen LeeENG184
39Kurt MaflinENG/NOR176
40Xiao GuodongCHINA171
41Robin HullFIN166
42James WattanaTHAI166
43Jamie CopeENG164
44Robert MilkinsENG157
45Gary WilsonENG153
46Andy HicksENG153
47Anthony McGillSCOT152
48Michael WhiteWALES150
49Mark KingENG149
50Barry PinchesENG146
51Jimmy RobertsonENG144
52Dave HaroldENG143
53Jamie BurnettSCOT136
54Luca BrecelBEL135
55Andrew HigginsonENG135
56Tony DragoMALTA132
57Ben WoollastonENG129
58Nigel BondENG126
59Willie ThorneENG126
60Joe SwailN.IRE124
61Tian PengfeiCHINA120
62Alfie BurdenENG118
63Matthew SeltENG114
64Paul HunterENG114
65Gerard GreeneENG112
66Darren MorganWALES111
67Thepchaiya Un-NoohTHAI109
68Rod LawlerENG108
69Ian McCullochENG105
70Mark JoyceENG104
71Zhou YuelongCHINA100

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you found value in this article and fully understand what is a century in snooker as well as things like how many centuries has Ronnie made.

Notching up the points to score 100 or more points in a single visit is not easy to do, not by any means. So those who manage this are truly skilled players.

+ posts

Rob is an avid player and fan of all cue sports, particularly 8-ball, and snooker. He has competed in a few local 8-ball tournaments and although he is not a professional, he can compete with the best of them.

what is a low deflection shaft

Previous Post

What is a Low Deflection Pool Cue? With Pictures

Next Post

Snooker vs Pool vs Billiards – Full Guide

comparison between pool and snooker and carom billiards