Eddie Hall has revealed just how little prize money Britain’s top strongmen were earning a decade ago, admitting he received only £3,500 for winning Britain’s Strongest Man back in 2016.
The former World’s Strongest Man made the revelation during a conversation with rising Strongwoman Chloe Brennan, where the pair discussed how dramatically the sport’s financial landscape has changed in recent years.
For a sport built on pulling trucks, lifting stones and pushing the human body to its absolute limit, the numbers Hall revealed came as a surprise.
Reflecting on his final Britain’s Strongest Man victory before moving on from the competition, Hall explained just how different things were compared to today’s payouts.
“My last Britain’s Strongest Man contest before I said 2016,” Hall said. “So 10 years ago I won £3,500 for winning Britain’s Strongest Man, and now it’s something like £40,000.”
The staggering increase highlights just how rapidly strongman has grown commercially over the last decade, with larger audiences, bigger sponsorships and social media exposure helping transform the sport from niche entertainment into a genuine mainstream attraction.
Hall admitted that during his own rise through the sport, making a living from strongman was far from straightforward.
“So in that respect, like 10 years ago I was in the same boat [as Chloe, making £2000 for Strongwoman],” he continued.
“But the progression since then has been insane. You know, I mean, winning World’s Strongest Man was only £36,000-£37,000. It’s almost like how the f*** can you make a living?”
The comments offered a rare insight into the financial realities many elite strength athletes faced during the 2010s, even at the very top of the sport.
Despite becoming one of the most recognisable faces in strength athletics, Hall’s biggest competitive achievements came at a time when prize money was still relatively modest compared to the physical demands, training costs and risks involved.
While Hall’s career eventually exploded beyond competition through sponsorships, exhibitions, television appearances and online content, his comments underlined how much the sport relied on athlete passion rather than financial reward for many years.
Brennan, meanwhile, explained that the women’s side of the sport is now beginning to experience similar upward momentum.
Speaking about her own experiences competing, she described how surprising it initially felt to simply receive money for appearing at events.
“Prize money for Britain’s Strongest Woman was like I got paid to just take part in that,” Brennan said. “Like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’”
The strongwoman competitor also stressed that fan support remains crucial if the growth is going to continue long-term.
“I hope that it can continue on the trajectory that it’s on,” she explained. “And I think it’s just going to take people who enjoy watching it. So, if you do enjoy strong women, like, buy tickets, buy live streams, go like get involved with it, get invested in the athletes, and that’s how it’s going to grow.”
Brennan also acknowledged that athletes themselves now play a major role in expanding the audience beyond competition day alone.
“And as us as athletes have to put ourselves out there as well to make people want to come in,” she added. “We can’t just rely on promoters.”
That shift towards personality-driven promotion has become one of the defining features of modern strength sports.
Athletes are no longer judged solely on competition results. YouTube channels, social media followings, podcasts and viral clips now form a huge part of the ecosystem surrounding strongman and strongwoman competitions.
Hall himself arguably helped pioneer that model within the sport. Long after retiring from elite competition, he remains one of the most recognisable figures in strength athletics online, with millions continuing to follow his training, challenges and crossover events.
The contrast between Hall’s £3,500 Britain’s Strongest Man payday and today’s reported £40,000 prize pool also reflects the wider transformation of strength sports entertainment.
Events that once catered almost exclusively to hardcore fans now attract global audiences through livestreams, YouTube content and social media distribution. Athletes have become personalities as much as competitors, helping promoters generate larger audiences and, in turn, bigger payouts.
But there is still a way to go.
Featured image credit: Giants Live STRONGMAN / YouTube (Screenshot) The Good, The Bad & The Beast / YouTube
