I disagree. Your claim was that "on the big tables, 8ball is a run-fest in which the first player to make a ball nearly always wins the rack." To me, 77% is not "nearly always." Also, 6 points of that 77% was not run outs after the first ball was made. A host of different situations led to that player winning the game later after giving up the table -- some running most of the balls (probably frequent), some nothing but the 8-ball (fairly rare), and a passel of things in between that are not "run-fests."
Incidentally, you might be surprised that what you called the "success rate" -- the player who makes the first ball after the break wins the game -- is about the same in pro 9-Ball as in pro 8-Ball. For the last two World 9-Ball events, the number from my stats comparable to the 77% in 8-Ball is 74 1/2% in 9-Ball. For the recent US Open 9-Ball, it was 78%. For the recent Florida Open it was 76%. I think a better measure to make your point about 8-Ball is runouts by the player at the table after the break. But let's look at a comparison of the two disciplines using a larger number of measures. I think you'll find some support there.
The following stats are for the streamed matches I tracked for the 2025 and 2024 World 9-Ball events, combined, vs. the 2024 and 2023 World 8-Ball events, combined, -- i.e., the two most recent world championships in each of those disciplines. This was a total of 557 games of 9-Ball and 458 games of 8-Ball. The conditions weren't the same for all 4 events, nor (of course) were the players the same. But the comparison is useful in judging today's results produced by top pro players in these two disciplines.
The stats are for
9-Ball first, then 8-Ball
• Successful breaks -- 72%, 51%
• Breaker won game -- 57%, 55%
• B&R games on all breaks -- 21%, 37%
• B&R games on successful breaks -- 29%, 73%
• Games ending in 1 inning -- 38%, 76%
• Games ending in the 2nd inning -- 25%, 17%
• Games going beyond the 2nd inning -- 36%, 7%
• Runouts by the player at the table following the break -- 30%, 67%
• First player to make a ball after the break won the game in that same inning -- 55%, 71%
• First player to make a ball after the break won the game in a later inning -- 20%, 6%
• First player to make a ball after the break won the game (any inning) -- 74%, 77%
• Games per missed shot (approx.) -- 1.7, 2.6
• Games per foul -- 3.4, 8.5
• Games with one or more safeties -- 50%, 9%
• Games (excl. B&Rs) with one or more safeties -- 63%, 15%
