Balance Game (retired Pricing Game)

Balance Game (retired Pricing Game)

Pricing games are featured on the current version of the American game show The Price Is Right. The contestant from Contestants' Row who bids closest to the price of a prize without going over wins it and has the chance to win additional prizes or cash in an onstage game. After the pricing game ends, a new contestant is selected for Contestants' Row and the process is repeated. Six pricing games are played on each hour-long episode; three games per episode were played in the half-hour format. With the exception of a single game from early in the show's history, only one contestant at a time is involved in a pricing game.

A total of 106 games have been played on the show; 74 are in the current rotation and 32 have been retired. On a typical hour-long episode, two games—one in each half of the show—will be played for a car, at most one game will be played for a cash prize and the other games will offer merchandise or trips. Usually, one of the six games will involve grocery products, while another will involve smaller prizes that can be used to win a larger prize package.

On the 1994 syndicated version hosted by Doug Davidson, the rules of several games were modified and other aesthetic changes were made. Notably, the grocery products used in some games on the daytime version were replaced by small merchandise prizes, generally valued less than $100. Episodes of The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular that aired in 2008 featured rule changes to some pricing games which rewarded a $1 million bonus to the contestant if specific goals were achieved while playing the pricing game (see below).