In the Harry Potter universe, the Triwizard Tournament is traditionally held once every five years , rotating between the three participating schools.

Basic timing

  • The Tournament was created about seven hundred years before Harry’s time as a competition between Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang.
  • In its classic form, the schools took turns hosting it roughly every five years, not annually.

Before and after Goblet of Fire

  • The Tournament was eventually discontinued for a long period because the death toll among student champions became too high.
  • By the time of Goblet of Fire (1994–1995 in-universe), it had not been held for over a century and was being revived at Hogwarts as a special, one-off return.

In-world vs. real-world perspective

  • In-world, characters talk about the Tournament’s intended schedule (every five years, rotating host schools) as the normal pattern.
  • From the books’ storyline, readers only ever see a single modern Triwizard Tournament, the 1994–1995 event, because it is reintroduced after that long hiatus and then effectively tainted by Cedric Diggory’s death and Voldemort’s return.

Quick Scoop (forum-style summary)

On forums and fan discussions, the usual answer is that the Triwizard Tournament used to happen every five years, but by Harry’s era it had been cancelled for over a hundred years and then brought back just once in Goblet of Fire.

TL;DR

  • Normal schedule in canon lore: every five years , rotating between the three schools.
  • In Harry’s time: it had not happened for about a century and was revived only once at Hogwarts.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.