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A maximum break is the highest possible break in a single frame of snooker. A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 reds with 15 blacks for 120 points, followed by all six colours for a further 27 points. Compiling a maximum break is regarded as a particularly significant achievement in the game of snooker, and may be compared to a nine-dart finish in darts or a 300 game in ten-pin bowling.
The first officially recognised maximum break was made by Joe Davis in a 1955 exhibition match in London. At the Classic in January 1982, Steve Davis achieved the first recognised maximum in professional competition, which was also the first maximum to occur during a televised match. The following year, Cliff Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum at the World Snooker Championship. At the UK Championship in December 2013, Mark Selby compiled the 100th recognised maximum break in professional competition. Ronnie O'Sullivan holds the record for the most maximum breaks in professional competition, with 15. He also holds the record for the fastest competitive maximum break, at 5 minutes and 8 seconds, which he achieved at the 1997 World Championship.
Maximum breaks have gradually become more frequent in snooker. Only eight recognised maximum breaks were achieved in the 1980s, but there were 26 in the 1990s, 35 in the 2000s, and 86 in the 2010s. In the 1980s and 1990s, some players received £147,000 for making a maximum break, but as the frequency of maximums increased, the reward for a maximum break was changed to a rolling prize pot that began at £5,000, leading to some discontent among players. For the 2019–20 snooker season, World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn replaced the rolling prize with a conditional £1 million bonus, to be awarded if 20 or more maximum breaks were attained in the season. Any player who contributed at least one such break to the total would have earned a share of the bonus proportional to the number of maximums completed. Thereafter, individual prizes for maximum breaks were largely replaced by a static "high break" prize for most tournaments, though some still offer a separate maximum break prize.