Minelab is giving away over $250,000 in prizes this summer, including a $100,000 grand prize, through a free app called The Realm. Entry costs nothing, no purchase is necessary, and one member of our own community has already won a Minelab Equinox 900 through it. This page is the plain-English version of how to get in, with the app links in one place.
Before anything else, the honest disclosure: this is NOT a sponsored post. Minelab is not paying us to tell you about this, and nobody at History Seekers can win anything. As an authorized Minelab dealer we are excluded from eligibility, which is exactly why we can tell you about it with a straight face: the only people this helps are you. We are sharing it because it is free to enter and our community likes free detectors. All rules, eligibility, and legal details are Minelab's alone; their official rules govern everything, and if anything on this page differs from those rules, the rules win.
Step 1: Get The Realm app (free)
The Realm by Minelab is a free social app for detectorists, published by Minelab Electronics, where hunters share finds, earn Karma, and take on challenges. It is also the only door into the competition. Grab it here:
- Android: The Realm by Minelab on Google Play
- iPhone / iPad: The Realm by Minelab on the Apple App Store
Create a free account once it is installed. You do not need to own a Minelab detector to join the app or the competition.
Step 2: Join the Race to the Realm
Inside the app, open the RTTR tab and tap JOIN THE RACE. That is the whole signup. Per Minelab, the competition is open to U.S. residents 18 and older, no purchase necessary, with full eligibility details in the official rules.
One state-by-state nuance, straight from those rules: the competition has two parts, and they have different exclusion lists. Residents of Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Virginia (plus U.S. territories) cannot enter the Challenge (the points race toward the $100,000 finals), but CAN still enter the Giveaways, which is the part where free detectors are won. New York and Florida residents are the reverse: eligible for the Challenge, excluded from the Giveaways. If that touches you, read the eligibility section of the official rules for the exact wording.
How the competition works
Per Minelab's official Race to the Realm page, the 2026 competition runs May 28 through August 19 in three 28-day rounds:
- Round 1: May 28 to June 24 (completed)
- Round 2: June 25 to July 22 (running now)
- Round 3: July 23 to August 19
You earn points by growing your Karma in the app, completing in-app challenges, attending Minelab-hosted events, engaging on social media, and registering Minelab products you own (owning one helps, but again, no purchase is necessary to compete). The top five from each round, fifteen finalists in all, get invited to the Race to the Realm Finals, are given brand new Minelab detectors, and compete in real-world detecting challenges for the $100,000 grand prize. Minelab also runs giveaways throughout the competition, and that part is not theoretical: a member of our own community has already won a Minelab Equinox 900 for free.
If you are reading this before July 23, the timing is genuinely good: Round 3 is a fresh 28 days, and five of the fifteen finalist seats come from it.
Why we are telling you
Because a real chance at free detectors and $100,000 is worth two minutes of your time, and because half the questions we get on our videos are "okay, but HOW do I sign up." This page is the answer we can put in one link: download the app, make an account, open the RTTR tab, tap JOIN THE RACE. If you get stuck, the official Minelab page has the details, and their official rules answer the eligibility and legal questions we deliberately will not paraphrase here.
Good luck out there. If you win something, come tell us in the History Seekers group, because we genuinely want to see it.
The story is more important than the artifact.