An offshoot of the "Most Inherently Unfair PG" Question

[Trivia Trap]

Hello, LFAT here that hasn't posted since I've been back in college (Fall of '09 ish). I've lurked on and off since then, wondering why I ever named myself Trivia Trap to begin with (must have stayed up late doing schoolwork when it was on GSN). I've been on youtube, surprised by the immense amount of old episodes that are on there (and subsequently binged on them). ANYWAY, I digest.

Everyone's going on about what people think about the most inherently unfair game is, and my opinion is it's That's Too Hard! (Much). But that doesn't excuse the stats. Now, I know that Plinko has never technically been won before. Let's ignore that game, and I want to know what the lowest win percentage for a "normal" game is. Or even the top 3 or 5. I'm even interested in the stats for retired games. I'm assuming the percentage is lower on the games that have been around since 1972. Thanks again, and from Monday going forward I will be DVRing every episode.

[sideshowPA]

Here's your one-stop shopping site: http://tpirstats.com/Other/PGStats.html

One that sticks out and surprises me is Gas Money, with a 9% win rate.

[Trivia Trap]

You are the man!

[tpir7215]

Let's ignore that game, and I want to know what the lowest win percentage for a "normal" game is.

The original Bullseye game where you had to guess the exact price of the car within 7 attempts.  Its win percentage was 0%.  Yeah.  It was literally never won.  Of course, considering it didn't last long, that probably wasn't the answer you were looking for.

As for current games with the lowest win percentages, I'd have to guess Golden Road, Pay the Rent, 3 Strikes, and Triple Play (in no particular order, though I think Triple Play has the lowest considering we had to wait like 7 years before we got another daytime win on that game, and then another full year before the next win (both were around Christmas 2015 and 2016 respectively).  Golden Road hasn't been much better, but at least it did produce that Mercedes-Benz S550 win during Dream Car Week 2016 plus that other Mercedes-Benz win from the end of 2014.  Pay the Rent has had tons of winners if you consider winning anything to be a win, but only three people have ever fully won the game (i.e., won the $100,000), and if I remember correctly, those three people only won because they had relatively easy setups (but then again, Pay the Rent still hasn't been around as long as the time we had to wait for that Triple Play win in 2015).  I'd say 3 Strikes actually has the highest win rate of the four games I've described, but it still hasn't had a good record.  It did start season 44 with two wins in a row ($49,752 Audi A3 Cabriolet sometime in September and $56,174 Mercedes-Benz Roadster SLK300 in December), and just this last October, there was that epic comeback with that $63,415 Cadillac.  So I'd say in order from highest to lowest win percentage (of the four games described above), it would be the following:

3 Strikes
Golden Road
Pay the Rent
Triple Play

I couldn't tell you the definitive order, though.  The order I listed was only based on my guess.  Of course, there are some other honorable mentions: That's Too Much!, Stack the Deck, Lucky $even (questionable though considering how often the producers manipulate this game), and recently (at least from what I read) Master Key.

[sideshowPA]

....and recently (at least from what I read) Master Key.

In the last 7 seasons, there have been 12 instances where a contestant did not win a key. 
In the previous 9 seasons, this only happened 4 times.

[Superballer]

Would that seem to be any deliberateness on the producers' part to make the correct prices of the 2 preliminary prizes too hard, or just plain bad luck on the contestants' part?  Either way, since there's no advance rhyme or reason as to which key's where on the rack, at least as far as I can tell, whether they wipe out after the small prizes is definitely more dumb luck than anything. 

[tpir7215]

In the last 7 seasons, there have been 12 instances where a contestant did not win a key. 
In the previous 9 seasons, this only happened 4 times.

I was talking about games where the car was not won, but 12 wipeouts in the last seven seasons vs 4 in the nine seasons before that is pretty bad.  I actually hosted a PowerPoint game in one of my classes in middle school last year and Master Key was the last game played (it was played for a $570 GoPro, an $8,984 SeaDoo, and a $24,136 Mini Cooper Hardtop).  The SPs were an electric toothbrush (the second SP) and something else, and the student had gotten the first product wrong.  It looked like it was gonna be a wipeout, so I was really trying to get the student to get the toothbrush, which they eventually did.  Unfortunately, they only won the camera, but that was better than nothing.

In case you're wondering, the lineup was Bonkers (for a $6,368 trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico; won on the first try albeit in like 8 seconds because of the clicking), Grand Game (for $20,000 with $6.00 target price; loss on the last item), One Away (for a $21,983 Chevrolet Trax LS; loss), Double Prices (for a $6,799 Honda CBR500R Motorcycle; loss) Punch-a-Bunch (2(?) punches; $250(?)), Master Key (for the prizes I described earlier; $570 GoPro camera), which was one win and two partial wins.  I was pretty surprised at the Bonkers win though (not because of the fact that it was won, but because of it having been won on the first try).  I was also expecting a win in Grand Game (because I thought the setup was relatively easy; my little brother who was like 9 at the time won the game when I tested him) and Double Prices (though maybe I should've expected the loss considering it was a kinda evil setup with $6,799 and $7,083 being the two options; that's a difference of $284).