It only took until the NFL’s late Sunday window for chaos to reach the $25 million Circa Sports Survivor Contest.
Key Takeaways
- Over 7,500 entries backed the heavily favored Chargers on Sunday.
- More than 36% of Grandissimo’s players were on Los Angeles.
- Only Jaguars-Browns had more selections in Survivor.
More than 30% of the record 25,017 entries were eliminated when the Chargers lost 26-14 to the Cardinals as 7.5-point favorites. There were 7,585 contestants who paid the $1,000 entry fee believing Los Angeles wouldn’t outright lose its first game.
Yikes 😩... Carnage already in Week 1 of #CircaSurvivor & #CircaGrandissimo as #Boltup lays an egg 🥚 at home against #BirdCityFootball.
— Circa Sports (@CircaSports) September 13, 2026
Chargers ❌
7,585 Survivor (30.3%) Eliminated
28 Grandissimo (36.4%) Eliminated
Contest season is officially BACK!
Just two players picked Arizona to pull off the upset, even though the Cardinals (+350) were the second-most-bet moneyline underdog at BetMGM on Sunday. The spread plummeted after opening Chargers -10.5.
Circa’s Grandissimo, with a $100,000 buy-in and a guaranteed $7.7 million prize pool saw 36.4% of the 77 entries drop out with the Cardinals’ win, leaving 49 players in the competition.
“Between Survivor and Grandissimo, $10.3M lost on the Chargers - the most of any single pick in contest history,” Mike Palm, Circa Sports’ vice president of operations, told VSiN.
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Staying alive
The Chargers were the most-picked team in Grandissimo and second in Survivor. The latter contest’s most-selected club, the Jaguars, easily got more than 8,100 entries through to Week 2 with a 34-10 romp over the Cleveland Browns.
Over 16% of the field sweated out the Steelers’ 20-13 victory over the Falcons, while another 7.1% (1,771 entries) barely survived the Lions’ 31-30 overtime victory Sunday. The Saints rallied from a 21-0 deficit and went for a game-winning two-point conversion late in the extra period, but they fell short.
The Raiders punched the ticket for 1,308 entries in a 27-13 win over the Dolphins. The Eagles gave 3.1% of Survivor entries a late scare against the Commanders, while 351 entries got through with the Bengals’ 33-27 victory over the Buccaneers.
Our #CircaSports Football Contests 🏈🏆 continue to grow 📈
— Circa Sports (@CircaSports) September 13, 2026
30,884 Total Signups 📋
$38,507,000 at stake 💰
The MOST Guaranteed Prizes ever 🤑
Over $25 Million in Survivor 😱
Can't wait to see you at the awards dinner 😎🥩🍻#CircaSportsMillion #CircaSurvivor #CircaGrandissimo pic.twitter.com/E6l7fIosOI
Other losers
No other team in the Survivor field had more than 1% of the entries, but the Titans did knock out another 213 players with their 23-10 loss to the Jets. Fewer than 135 entries total were on the losing Cowboys, Rams, Dolphins, Texans, Colts, Bucs, and Panthers.
Eighteen entries didn’t make a selection, bringing the total number of Week 1 eliminations to 8,032. There are 23 entries on the Chiefs for Monday Night Football, while nobody picked their opponent, the Broncos, this week.
Other than the Chargers, all of Grandissimo’s remaining contestants survived Week 1 without a loss.
Record crowd
This year’s Survivor field is the largest since the contest launched in 2020. Contestants pick one team each week to win, and they can no longer use that team again.
The field will be whittled down through a 20-week competition, with Thanksgiving and Christmas each being split into two separate periods of games.
Last year, five remaining Survivor players won $3.7 million each. Grandissimo’s prize pool is up from $6.9 million last season. The handicapping contest Circa Millions is at $6 million this year.
“We’re grateful for the passionate community that continues to support Circa Sports, and we’re excited to welcome both returning contestants and first-time players for what will be our most thrilling season yet,” Circa owner Derek Stevens told Covers in May.
