Price tags · Puzzle #28 · Tuesday, October 27
Price tags: the answers
Four questions, each with one true number. Here they are with their answers, how to reason each one out, and where the number comes from. Play today's Price tags.
1. One cruise guest: On average, how much did Royal Caribbean Group take in per guest it carried in 2025, fares and onboard spending together?
Photo: Kahunapule Michael Johnson, CC BY-SA 2.0 - Brands
- Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Silversea
- Ticket share
- About 70% of revenue is cruise fares
The answer: about $1,900. Royal Caribbean Group carried about 9.4 million passengers in 2025 and took in a record $17.9 billion.
Napkin math - 7nights a cruise
- ×$250a night
≈$1,750
The real answer is about $1,900 (Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.). On a napkin, take 7 nights a cruise, times $250 a night, and you get about $1,800. The estimate is 1.1 times too low, close enough to score 9.6 out of 10. Any guess from $950 to $3,800 scores 7.0 or better, because the game only counts how many times off you are.
Source: Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (SEC Form 10-K), Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
2. A season of kids' sports: How much did the average US sports family spend in 2024 on their child's main sport, from registration to travel?
- Biggest single cost
- Travel and lodging
The answer: about $1,016. That was up 46% since 2019, about twice the rate of inflation.
Napkin math - 12months a year
- ×$80a month on fees, gear and gas
≈$960
The answer comes to about $1,016 (Aspen Institute Project Play). To reason it out, take 12 months a year, times $80 a month on fees, gear and gas, and you get about $960. It's 1.1 times too low, which as a guess would still have scored 9.8 out of 10. Any guess from $510 to $2,000 scores 7.0 or better, because the game only counts how many times off you are.
3. Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card: What did Logan Paul's PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card sell for, including buyer's premium, at Goldin in February 2026?
- What
- A Pikachu Illustrator card, issued as a 1998 contest prize
- Rarity
- About 40 are known, and this is the only one graded a perfect 10 by PSA
- Sold
- Goldin, February 2026
The answer: $16.49 million. Logan Paul had bought it in a $5.3 million deal in 2021, and Guinness World Records declared it the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction.
Napkin math: Top baseball cards have topped $10 million; the single perfect copy of the rarest Pokémon card, sold by a famous YouTuber, could go higher.
The real answer is $16.49 million (BBC News). There's no tidy chain of numbers for this one, so the skill is a sense of scale: the answer is in the tens of millions. Any guess from $8.2 million to $33 million scores 7.0 or better, because the game only counts how many times off you are.
Source: BBC News, Logan Paul's Pokémon card smashes record in $16m sale
4. One Chick-fil-A: How much did a typical stand-alone Chick-fil-A restaurant sell in 2025?
Photo: Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0 - Open
- Six days a week (closed Sundays)
- Counts
- Stand-alone restaurants, not mall locations
The answer: just under $9.2 million. The figure comes from Chick-fil-A's franchise disclosure document, and it was down 1.7% from 2024.
Napkin math - 312days open a year
- ×2,000orders a day
- ×$14an order
≈$8.74M
The answer comes to just under $9.2 million (Restaurant Business). To reason it out, take 312 days open a year, times 2,000 orders a day, times $14 an order, and you get about $8.7 million. The estimate is 1.1 times too low, close enough to score 9.8 out of 10. Any guess from $4.6 million to $18 million scores 7.0 or better, because the game only counts how many times off you are.
Source: Restaurant Business, Chick-fil-A's unit volumes hit a ceiling
.jpg){kind=link}
