The Price Is Right has challenged contestants to over 100 different pricing games through the years, but there are a few that stand out as the show’s best.
The Price Is Right is arguably the most beloved game show on American television.
The original version of the show (now referred to as the ‘Bob Barker Era’) premiered on CBS back in 1972. The Price Is Right is still one of the longest-running network television shows within the United States to this day.
And while any current The Price Is Right fan is sure to tell you that the show is still as good today as it has ever been, it has had to innovate quite a bit over the years.
The Price Is Right pricing games
Over the course of its more than five-decade run on television, The Price Is Right has introduced a total of 112 different pricing games.
And as a testament to just how entertaining a well-structured price-focused guessing-game can be, a whopping 78 of these pricing games are still in rotation today.
However, if we had to pick our top three favorites, only Dice Game, Cliff Hangers and the classic Plinko, would make the list.
The best The Price Is Right pricing games that have been retired
Some The Price Is Right pricing games have been around for decades, but before we jump right into the fan-favorite pricing games which are still around today – it is only fitting that we pay homage to some of the games that we have lost along the way.
Our definitive ranking of the top ten now-retired The Price Is Right pricing games, is as follows:
| Rank | Pricing Game |
| 10. | The Phone Home Game |
| 9. | Joker |
| 8. | Give or Keep |
| 7. | Hurdles |
| 6. | Poker Game |
| 5. | Balance Game |
| 4. | Clock Game |
| 3. | Bullseye |
| 2. | Penny Ante |
| 1. | Super Ball! |
3. Dice Game
Dice Game is an old favorite in the world of The Price Is Right pricing games, and it was first introduced in 1976.
As with most of the best pricing games, Dice Game requires a fine balance of technical skill and price-guessing prowess, as the game tasks contestants with rolling four oversized dice to predict the price of a car.
If the contestant does not roll the correct figure out of hand, they have to guess whether the digits rolled are lower or higher than the real price.
This game not only earns its top-three spot because it is such a notoriously difficult game to get just right (just ask actor, Aaron Paul, who lost this game back in 2000), but also because it is such a nail-biter to watch along from home.
2. Cliff Hangers
Usually, a cliffhanger is not something that would earn a top-three spot on any television show ranking and they are generally not celebrated among fans and film-lovers.
However, in the case of The Price Is Right, there is no other pricing game that we would rather place in the top two.
Cliff Hangers was also introduced in 1976 and it challenges contestants to bid on the prices of three small prizes.
Every dollar’s difference between the guessed price and the actual price will be in one step closer to the edge for the now-famous mountain-climber figurine.
If this price difference exceeds 25 steps, the mountain climber falls off the mountain and the contestant loses.
This game combines the best of both worlds when it comes to back-seat-guessing and slowly inching towards your doom, and there are few other The Price Is Right pricing games that even come close to this level of tension-building and excitement.
This is why it remains such a fan-favorite to this day.
1. Plinko
It is nearly impossible to reference anything The Price Is Right-related, without somehow mentioning Plinko.
And, though this pricing game was first introduced quite a few years after the other games on this list, in 1983, it has become an undeniable The Price Is Right staple.
With prizes ranging from as low as $100 (and below) to as high as $50,000 – Plinko is easily one of the most unpredictable and exciting pricing games that still currently in the rotation at The Price Is Right.
Unlike most of the pricing games on The Price Is Right, Plinko starts out with contestants guessing the price of various small prizes to earn chips which they can use in the second part of the challenge.
The contestants then have to rely on their own, physical skills (or just dumb luck) to release their chips at the top of the game board in the hopes that they will land in the slots with the largest prize totals at the bottom of the board.
