WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 131 of Dragon Ball Super, "A Miraculous Conclusion! Farewell, Goku! Until We Meet Again!" which debuted Saturday on Adult Swim.
Much of Dragon Ball Super, the latest chapter in Akira Toriyama's enduring Dragon Ball anime franchise, pit the iconic characters in a series of martial-arts contests, culminating in the Tournament of Power, involving teams assembled from across the Dragon Ball Multiverse. A champion was crowned in the end, but it wasn't longtime protagonist Goku, continuing his surprisingly poor win-loss ratio.
Across four Dragon Ball anime series, Goku has only won a single martial-arts tournament: the climactic one in the original Dragon Ball against Piccolo -- and, even then, only barely. Here's a complete history of Goku's tournament losses, disqualifications and concessions across the four series, from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Super.
The 21st Tenkaichi Budokai
The very first tournament in the series was the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, or, World Martial Arts Tournament. While only 12 years old, Goku and Krillin entered as the youngest participants after completing a year of training under Master Roshi. Little did either know, Roshi himself had also entered the tournament under the guise of a mysterious martial artist named Jackie Chun, to teach his star pupils the value of humility.
Roshi faced off against Goku in the final round, nearly incapacitating the boy with an electric attack before Goku transformed into a Great Ape, thanks to his Saiyan tail and the full moon above him. In response, Roshi destroyed the moon with a powerful Kamehameha Wave. The two resumed fighting, but fell simultaneously before Roshi arose and declared himself the winner. Goku got the last laugh, however, using the majority of Roshi's prize money to treat himself to an epic dinner.
The 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai
Three years later, the 15-year-old Goku entered the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai along with Roshi, Krillin, Yamcha and two new rivals from the Crane School, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu. By the end of the tournament, only Goku and Tien remained, with Roshi deciding that Tien would be a better opponent for Goku this time around.
The grueling battle between the two fighters took to the skies, where Tien revealed an advantage, as he could fly. Ultimately, the warriors simultaneously knocked each other out of the ring. However, upon their return to Earth, Goku collided with a truck, eliminating him from the tournament only seconds before Tien similarly made impact.
Cell Games
After Piccolo nearly used the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai as an opportunity to continue his father's conquest of the Earth, the tournament was canceled for nearly a full decade, well into Dragon Ball Z. Upon the villainous Cell attaining his perfect form, he announced the reinstatement of the tradition as the Cell Games, and invited Earth's greatest fighters to face him in the ring to determine the fate of the planet. His first opponent was Goku.
Goku nearly defeated Cell with a point-blank Kamehameha, only for Cell to completely regenerate, as his core remained intact. Exhausted, Goku conceded, leaving his son Gohan to finish the fight after the boy transformed into a Super Saiyan 2. However, as Gohan had lost control and let the fight play out too long, Goku was forced to sacrifice himself by teleporting Cell and himself to another world when the villain self-destructed in a desperate effort to destroy Earth.
Other World Tournament
Shortly after Goku's death, he convinces the Grand Kai in the afterlife to throw a martial-arts tournament, with the souls of the greatest heroic warriors participating. As the strongest fighter from the northern quadrant of the universe, overseen by King Kai, Goku made his way to the final round, where he faced Pikkon, the champion from the western quadrant.
After their initial bout, Goku and Pikkon revealed they had been holding back; Goku then transformed into a Super Saiyan, while Pikkon removed his weighted clothing. As the battle escalated, Goku and Pikkon inadvertently disqualified themselves simultaneously when they both used moons hovering over the arena for leverage, which counted as a ring out.
The 25th Tenkaichi Budokai
When Goku learned Gohan and Vegeta would sign up for the 25th Budokai Tenkaichi seven years after his death, during the Cell Games, he was permitted to visit Earth for one day -- due to his heroic deeds in life and his good behavior in the afterlife. In a random drawing before the tournament, Goku was slated to fight against Vegeta in the first round, their great rematch seemingly becoming destiny.
Ultimately, Goku never fought in the tournament, and instead left early, along with most of the Z Fighters, when recruited by the Supreme Kai to stop the revival of the monstrous Majin Buu. The reigning world champion retained his title after Android 18 threw a fight against him in exchange for a secret payout.
The 28th Tenkaichi Budokai
The final set of Dragon Ball Z episodes experienced a time jump, to 10 years after the final defeat of Majin Buu by Goku. Goku hoped the evil Buu would be reborn with all his strength, only as a good soul rather than a malevolent one, a wish overheard by afterlife overseer King Yemma. Resurrected in a human body on Earth as Uub, the boy entered the tournament as a 10-year-old participant.
Goku secretly fixed the drawing of fighters so he could confront Uub in the first round. There, he goaded Uub into revealing his true power, which enabled him to go toe-to-toe against Goku, while the Saiyan retained his normal form. Impressed, Goku offered to become Uub's teacher to better hone his incredible abilities, in exchange for an epic rematch. After Uub agreed, the two fighters left the tournament early, with Goku's granddaughter Pan going on to win as the youngest champion in the competition's history.
The Junior Division
While rendered non-canon after the release of Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball GT followed Z as a direct sequel,. In it, Goku was accidentally transformed into a child by a errant wish from the Black Star Dragon Balls. After humanity was saved from the evil Tuffle Baby, a new tournament was held to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the restored peace.
Given his restored youth, Goku was forced to enter the Junior Division, while his family and friends competed as adults. Retaining much of his strength even in his pint-sized state, Goku easily progressed to the final round, but was knocked out of the ring by a bookish opponent after being distracted by Vegeta on the sidelines.
Tournament of Destroyers
After defeating a resurrected Frieza in Dragon Ball Super, Goku and the Z Fighters learn of the existence of a multiverse from God of Destruction, Beerus, and his brother from Universe 6, Champa. The two estranged siblings decide to hold a tournament between their two universes, dubbed the Tournament of Destroyers, with Goku serving as part of Universe 7's team, while the assassin Hit was Universe 6's champion.
Fighting against each other in the penultimate match, Goku and Hit are pushed to new levels of power, with Goku combining the Kaio Ken technique with his Super Saiyan Blue transformation to overcome Hit's abilities to manipulate space and time. After realizing the only way he could defeat Hit would kill him, Goku concedes the fight. In return, Hit concedes in the final round to Monaka, resulting in Universe 7's victory.
Tournament of Power
The final storyline of Dragon Ball Super upped the ante by having all 15 universes in the Dragon Ball Multiverse fight in the Tournament of Power, overseen by Grand Zeno and his alternate-future counterpart. The winning universe would get to make a wish on the omnipotent Super Dragon Balls, while losing universes were erased from existence. As the competition began, it quickly became clear that Universe 11's Jiren was the strongest fighter.
By the end of the tournament, Goku had unlocked a new transformation in Autonomous Ultra Instinct, allowing him to push beyond his physical limitations to harness the power of the gods. With this transformation, Goku began to overpower Jiren in the final moments of the tournament, only to collapse from sheer exhaustion. Eventually, Goku and Frieza teamed up to drag Jiren with them out of the arena, resulting in the elimination of all three fighters, leaving Android 17 as the last fighter standing.