Alone US vs Alone Australia: Which Version Is Harder?

The Australian spinoff isn't just the US show with different accents. It runs a smaller prize, picks different biomes, and so far its fields have collapsed on a different curve. I'll compare the two on the numbers that matter (locations, winning durations, and stakes), then say which one looks harder and why the answer isn't obvious.

The setups

The US show runs on History Channel for $500,000 most seasons ($1,000,000 for Season 7's fixed challenge) and has favored cold, remote terrain: five of the last seasons sat in Canada's Northwest Territories or northern Labrador, with detours to Mongolia, Patagonia, and the semi-arid Great Karoo in South Africa. Winning runs there range from 34 days (Season 12) all the way to Roland Welker's 100.

Alone Australia runs on SBS for a smaller AUD 250,000 prize and has leaned into cold-temperate rainforest. Season 1 and Season 3 filmed in Tasmania (lutruwita), Season 2 crossed to Fiordland in New Zealand's South Island, and the announced Season 4 moves to Sápmi inside the Arctic Circle in Finland, its first genuinely Arctic setting. Winning runs so far: Gina Chick took 67 days, Krzysztof Wojtkowski 64, and Shay Williamson 76.

	Alone US	Alone Australia
Network	History	SBS
Prize	$500,000 USD	$250,000 AUD
Signature terrain	Arctic/sub-Arctic	Cold-temperate rainforest
Longest winning run	100 days (S7)	76 days (S3)
Completed seasons	12	3

Which is harder

On paper the US show sets the higher bar: its Arctic and sub-Arctic sites push winners past 80 and even 100 days, in cold that Tasmania's rainforest doesn't match. If "harder" means the most extreme conditions and the longest runs on record, the US version wins.

But look at how fast the Australian fields break. Alone Australia Season 1 had a field that averaged just 21.6 days lasted, one of the lowest of any season in either version, and Season 3 still only averaged 42.4 despite Shay's long 76-day win. The Tasmanian rainforest is relentlessly wet and cold, with thin foraging, and it seems to grind contestants down early even when the eventual winner goes deep. Add the smaller prize, and Australian contestants are enduring comparable misery for half the money.

There's a casting distinction worth noting alongside the terrain. Through twelve completed seasons the US main series has never crowned a female winner, while Alone Australia's very first champion, Gina Chick, was a woman who lasted 67 days in the Tasmanian wet. That doesn't make one version harder than the other, but it does show the Australian show building its own record rather than copying the US template.

My read: the US show has the harder peaks (nothing in Australia has matched an Arctic Circle 84-day run yet), but Alone Australia may be the harder average experience, because its rainforest collapses the middle of the field faster and pays less to stick it out. The New Zealand detour in Season 2 and the announced move to Arctic Finland for Season 4 suggest the producers keep hunting for terrain that breaks people faster. For the full breakdown by version, the seasons hub lists every location, and where to watch covers how to stream the Australian episodes.