The current holders of the Challenge Cup are Wigan Warriors, winning the competition for the 21st time, beating Warrington Wolves 18-8 in the 2024 Final on 8 June 2024 at Wembley Stadium.

The rugby union authorities refused to sanction a nationwide tournament, however, fearing that this would inevitably lead to professionalism.

Initially, the final tie was held at one of the larger club grounds in the north, however, noting the excitement in Huddersfield that the town's football team were playing at Wembley in the FA Cup Final and the increasing difficulty for any of the rugby league grounds to satisfy spectator demand to see the final tie, the rugby league authorities voted 13–10 to move to the recently built Wembley Stadium in London, aiming to emulate the FA Cup's success and to put the game on the national stage.

At the start of the Second World War, rugby league suspended its season immediately, but the Challenge Cup took a single year's break before restarting, on a limited basis and with the support of the authorities, as part of keeping up morale.

1954 saw the Challenge Cup final drawn and the replay set the record for a rugby league match attendance.

The match was on 5 May and 102,569 was the official attendance at Odsal Stadium, although it is believed that up to 120,000 spectators were present to see Warrington defeat Halifax 8–4.

In 1997, a Challenge Cup Plate[clarification needed] took place for teams knocked out in the early rounds of the competition.

On 25 August 2018, Catalans Dragons became the first non-English team to win the Challenge Cup as they defeated Warrington Wolves 20–14 at Wembley.

Tony Collins, the Rugby Football League's archivist, stated in 2007 that, "Fattorini's weren't given any particular commission, just told to come up with something prestigious".

[4] The average wage in 1897 was around £2 per week which suggests an equivalent 2007 price of £16,000, although Collins says, "if you wanted something made of silver and with that level of craftsmanship these days, it would be far more expensive.

[4] The original Fattorini trophy was last presented at the 2001 Challenge Cup Final to St Helens captain Chris Joynt after his team had beaten Bradford.

[4] The trophy used today was created by Jack Spencer (goldsmith) of Sheffield in 800 man-hours and is an almost exact replica of the Fattorini piece.

[4][8] One improvement made with the new version is that the small shields displaying each winning team and captain are now the same size, whereas they had been getting smaller as space ran out on the original.

[9][10] The current holder of the trophy is Bevan French of the Wigan Warriors following their victory over Warrington Wolves in the 2024 final.

Graham Rees scored the quickest Challenge Cup Final try after just 35 seconds for St Helens against Leeds in 1972.

In the final minute, with Leeds 11 – 7 in front, Wakefield winger Ken Hurst scored under the posts, and Don Fox (Who had already won the Lance Todd Trophy that day) had a match winning conversion to take in injury time.

Richard Eyres of Widnes was shown a red card for an off the ball elbow on Martin Offiah of Wigan in the 1993 final, and was banned for 6 games as a result.

[13] The first final to be decided by golden point was in 2023 with Leigh Leopards scoring a drop goal against Hull KR via Lachlan Lam.

The inception of Grandstand also saw coverage of earlier rounds start to be shown during the 1960s with ITV's World of Sport even showing games as well for a short period.

When he retired, commentary was covered by Ray French and he continued to work for the BBC for a number of years, albeit in semi-retirement, with his last Challenge Cup Final in 2008.

Nowadays, the BBC continues to broadcast the tournament with Clare Balding hosting from 2006 to 2012 until her move to Channel 4 Racing.

The current main hosts (as of 2013) are Mark Chapman and Super League Show presenter Tanya Arnold.