2025 CrossFit Open Registration Lags, Games Set for Lower Prize Purse

The Open begins in 8 days. Register here.

We are just over one week away from the start of the 2025 CrossFit Open and less than two weeks to the submission deadline for 25.1, on Monday, March 3. 

• That’s the date when we will have a complete picture of the total registrations for the 2025 Open.

We are now over a month into the reporting I share each day on Instagram (@known_knowable), which is a daily check-in on the CrossFit Open from four different angles:

1. Counting up from Day 0 to the final day of the registration period.
2. Counting down from the first day of the registration period to the final day.
3. Prize purse funding.
4. Total registration by Competitive Region.

Last week, we focused on Counting Up and Counting down. Today, we’ll focus on prize purse funding.

The 2025 CrossFit Season Prize Purse 

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The 2025 CrossFit Games rulebook revealed a significant change to the way the prize purse works for all parts of the season. 

• “Starting this year, athlete payouts across multiple stages/divisions will increase with the number of Open registrations,” the CrossFit announcement read. 

In the same announcement, CrossFit added a brand new prize available to affiliate owners for the affiliates with the most registrations in each region and for affiliates with the top-performing teams in each region. 

• For affiliates, these prizes would be paid out in $2,500 Rogue Fitness gift cards. This is an amazing way for these affiliates to buy some new gear from a top sponsor.

From the weekly Open winners to the Fittest on Earth in each of the adaptive divisions, the payouts are now directly dependent upon 2025 Open registration, as broken down by percentage. 

• This is different from previous years, which were provided in part or in whole by sponsors like Under Armor, Reebok, NOBULL, GORUCK, and Northern Spirit. 

The first payout in 2007? It was $500 cash, with the same amount given to men and women.

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In the 2025 Crossfit Games rulebook, Appendix F: Prize Money Distributions lays out all of the possible prizes using 300,000 registrants as an example. This includes how they calculate the top prize, which, by percentage, is 12.25% of the total available prize money for the men’s winner and 12.25% for the women’s winner.

• At a high level, 50% of all Open registration dollars will go to fund the purse for affiliates and athletes competing across the Games season. Of that amount, 49% goes to the Individual Games prize purse.

With the 300,000 registrant example, the first-place prize would total $367,500, which is $52,500 over 2024’s top prize. $367,500. For the last seven seasons, the top prize for the Fittest Man and Woman on Earth has been $300,000 or more. 

It’s very possible the $300,000-plus top prize will continue, but it’s not guaranteed as it was in previous years when backed by a presenting sponsor.

The Open registration would need to eclipse 244,898 registrations just to hit a payout of $300,000.05. 

• As of 3:04 p.m. ET on February 18, the Open registration total is 99,571.  

As discussed last week, the final 10 days before the week-one submission deadline have historically accounted for around 50% of total registrations (per insiders who previously worked at CrossFit HQ). 

• In order for the 2025 CrossFit Games to offer the same $315,000 top prize as 2024, there would need to be 257,143 Open registrations or more.

Beyond the prize for Fittest on Earth, the other prizes for second place through 20th place look to be lower year-over-year, even using the example of 300,000 registrants that CrossFit HQ provides within the rulebook. 

Starting in 2017, the Second Fittest on Earth has been awarded at or over $100,000, with last year’s Second Fittest — Dallin Pepper and Gabriella Migała — taking home $120,000. 

That now changes. Significantly. 

In the CrossFit rulebook’s hypothetical example of 300,000 registrants, the first-place prize increases by $52,500, but it appears that money has come mostly out of the second-place prize. 

• The second-place prize drops from $120,000 to $73,500, a difference of $46,500.
  
• The same goes for third place, which would go from $85,000 in 2024 to $58,800 under the 300,000 registrant example. That’s a difference of $26,200.

Using the same 257,143 registrant example from above, that would net out to: 

• $315,000.01 for first place
• $63,000.04 for second place 
• $50,400.03 for third place

In this scenario, second place would receive just over half of what it did for the previous year, and third place would net 60% of what it took home in 2024.

To get to $120,000 for second place, nearly 500,000 people would need to register for the Open under this structure.

• There are also no prizes listed in the rulebook for winning individual events at the CrossFit Games. This is a first since the event win bonuses were added in 2013. Previously, these prizes have been $3,000 for an event win, $2,000 for second in an event, and $1,000 for third in an event. 

CrossFit does stipulate that “additional prizes may be presented by partners, sponsors, or select vendors.” At this time, none have been announced.

How Does the 2025 CrossFit Games Prize Purse Compare to the World Fitness Project?

A lot has been said of top elite athletes who may be comparing the prize money for the Games to that of the newly announced World Fitness Project (WFP) season. 

• WFP has recently announced a total prize purse of $1.5M across its three competitions in 2025. 

It’s possible that the individual prize purse at the CrossFit Games, Open Individual prizes, and the In-Affiliate Semifinal could be less than the three competitions put on by WFP if there are fewer than 263,158 registrants. 

In that scenario, the total prize purse amounts for the individual portions of the CrossFit Games season would look like this:

Games Individual	$1,289,474.20
In-Affiliate Semifinal	$78,947.40
Open Individual	$131,579.00
Total	$1,500,000.60

If CrossFit Open had 263,158 registrants to match WFP prize money, the Games season prizes would break down as follows:

The $1.5 million for the WFP prize purse is for its three competitions and does not include any of the guaranteed contracts the top 20 men and women signed for their 2025 season. 

WFP events will pay out from first place through 30th.

The top prize amount for functional fitness racing will continue to be the CrossFit Games. However, unless you win the title, it’s very possible the WFP could pay an athlete more over the course of the season than the Games. 

• “Mo’ money, mo’ problems,” as the late, great Notorious B.I.G. would say — but if an athlete could navigate both the Games and the WFP seasons, they could be in for a bigger payday than ever before. 

More money and more opportunities are both positives for the Sport of Fitness.

• For a deeper dive into how the payouts work, including all the percentages, check out this piece I wrote shortly after the 2025 CrossFit Games rulebook was released in January: How Does the 2025 CrossFit Games Prize Purse Work?

Let’s dive into this week’s numbers.

First, to set the table, here are some quick dates and info for the 2025 Open:

• Registration started on January 15 at noon PT.
• CrossFit Open Workout 25.1 starts on February 27 at noon PT.
• CrossFit Open Workout 25.3 ends on March 17 at 5 p.m. PT.

That gives us 43 days during the registration period and 18 days once the Open starts.

The schedule can be found here, and you can register for the 2025 CrossFit Open here.

Open Report – Weekly Update 4

We are now 35 days into registration and 11 days until the Open 25.1 submission date. The data below is through day 34.

Based on competitive divisions, the current registration progress looks like this through the last eight days:

Based on competitive region, the current registration progress looks like this through the last eight days:

The registration total is currently growing by an average of around 2.75k each day after the initial day-one total of 8,904. 

But what does that look like compared to previous years?

During the same days in 2024, the average day-over-day addition of registrations was 3.76k after the initial day one of 20,982. 

• The chart above, which is a year-over-year comparison chart counting down to the submission date for XX.1, now has 2022 and 2023 data. 
• Note: 2022 only includes the ‘Open’ division, not the 14-15 or 55+ age group divisions or Adaptive divisions.

As of the publishing of this article, that would equate to $995,710.00 in total prize money, divided into the following categories:

Games – Individual	$487,897.90
Games – Teams	$99,571.00
Open – Individual	$49,785.50
Open – Affiliate	$199,142.00
Masters Games	$99,571.00
Adaptive Games	$29,871.30
Online Semifinal	$29,871.30

This will be our weekly monitor as the Open approaches and we go through to 25.3. I will also continue to post daily check-ins at @known_knowable on Instagram.

More CrossFit Stories

• CrossFit Open Announcement 25.3: First Look and Predictions
• 2025 CrossFit Training Camp Preview: Underdogs Athletics
• Who Is Skipping the 2025 CrossFit Open? All the Athletes We Know So Far

Featured image: Mike Halpin