Last updated: 1st November 2026. All figures from Pro Football Reference unless linked otherwise, current through Super Bowl LX. Refreshed each February once the game is played.
The biggest Super Bowl win is San Francisco’s 55-10 over Denver in Super Bowl XXIV in January 1990, a 45-point margin, and the closest is the Giants’ 20-19 over Buffalo a year later (Pro Football Reference). Tom Brady holds the MVP record with five, and the single-game passing record with 505 yards, set in a game he lost (Super Bowl leaders).
Super Bowls biggest, closest and highest-scoring games
These are the team and game records: what happened on the scoreboard rather than to any one player.
| Record | The figure | The game |
|---|---|---|
| Biggest margin of victory | 45 points, 49ers 55-10 Broncos | XXIV, January 1990 |
| Most points by one team | 55, San Francisco 49ers | XXIV, January 1990 |
| Highest combined score | 75, 49ers 49-26 Chargers | XXIX, January 1995 |
| Lowest combined score | 16, Patriots 13-3 Rams | LIII, February 2019 |
| Closest game | 1 point, Giants 20-19 Bills | XXV, January 1991 |
| Fewest points by a winner | 13, New England Patriots | LIII, February 2019 |
| Fewest points by a loser | 3, shared: Rams and Dolphins | LIII, 2019 and VI, 1972 |
| Most consecutive appearances | 4, Buffalo Bills | XXV to XXVIII |
| Most sacks by one team | 7, Seattle Seahawks (ties the record) | LX, February 2026 |
Derived from Pro Football Reference’s Super Bowl history; the sacks row from NBC’s Super Bowl LX report. Current through Super Bowl LX.
Super Bowl LIII turns up three times in that table, because New England’s 13-3 win over the Rams in February 2019 set the lowest combined score, the fewest points by a winner and a share of the fewest by a loser (Pro Football Reference). The only other team held to three points was Miami, in Super Bowl VI in 1972.
Nine of the sixty Super Bowls have been decided by exactly three points (the full results), which is the value of one field goal. The rulebook lists it in Rule 11, Section 1, Article 2: “Field goal: 3 points” (2026 NFL Rulebook). A field goal is a kick between the two upright posts and over the crossbar, and the scoring page covers how it fits alongside a touchdown (six points, scored by carrying or catching the ball in the end zone).
Only two Super Bowls have gone to overtime
Overtime is the extra period played when the scores are level after four quarters, close to what football (soccer) fans call extra time. The rulebook sets it up in Rule 4, Section 1, Article 1: “In the event the score is tied at the end of four periods, the game is extended by an overtime period (or periods) as prescribed in Rule 16” (2026 NFL Rulebook). In plain English, a level Super Bowl keeps going until someone wins, and the overtime page explains how that extra period works.
The first time was Super Bowl LI in February 2017, when New England came back from 28-3 down to beat Atlanta 34-28. The second was Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024, when Kansas City beat San Francisco 25-22 (Pro Football Reference).
So nine Super Bowls have been settled by a single field goal, yet only two were still level when the fourth quarter ran out.Two in sixty. Whatever you’ve been told about the Super Bowl always coming down to the wire, the numbers don’t support it.
Super Bowl MVP: who has won it, and how often
MVP stands for Most Valuable Player, the award given after each Super Bowl to the player judged to have made the biggest difference, roughly what we’d call player of the match.
| Player | MVP awards | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Brady | 5 | XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLIX, LI, LV |
| Joe Montana | 3 | XVI, XIX, XXIV |
| Patrick Mahomes | 3 | LIV, LVII, LVIII |
| Bart Starr | 2 | I, II |
| Terry Bradshaw | 2 | XIII, XIV |
| Eli Manning | 2 | XLII, XLVI |
Compiled from the MVP column of Pro Football Reference’s Super Bowl history. Current through Super Bowl LX.
Brady’s five is the outright record, won across nineteen years, from 2002 to 2021, with two different clubs (Pro Football Reference). Every name in that table is a quarterback, the player who receives the ball at the start of each play and throws most of the passes, and I looked at why the award leans that way in why the Super Bowl MVP is really a quarterback award.
The MVPs who break the pattern
Most Super Bowl MVPs are quarterbacks, and most of them are on the winning side. A few aren’t, and those are the interesting ones.
Chuck Howley is the only player to win the award from the losing side. Which I don’t think I have even see happen in football (soccer!) either! The Dallas linebacker (a defender who lines up just behind the front row) was named MVP of Super Bowl V in January 1971, a game his team lost 16-13 to the Baltimore Colts (Pro Football Reference).
Desmond Howard is the other exception, and the only special teams player ever to win it (Fox News). Special teams are the units on the field for kicks, and Howard was a returner, the player who catches the kick and runs it back. In Super Bowl XXXI in January 1997 he returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown for Green Bay. The special teams page explains the role.
The award has also been shared once, in Super Bowl XII, and that story sits on the winners page.
The individual records
Passing
Passer rating, used twice below, is a single number that sums up how efficiently a quarterback threw, and I compare it with ESPN’s version in passer rating vs QBR. An interception is a pass caught by the other team.
| Record | Player | Figure | Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most passing yards, one game | Tom Brady | 505 | LII, 2018 |
| Most passing yards, career | Tom Brady | 3,039 in 10 games | |
| Highest passer rating, one game | Phil Simms | 150.9 | XXI, 1987 |
| Highest passer rating, career | Joe Montana | 127.8 in 4 games | |
| Most passing touchdowns, one game | Steve Young | 6 | XXIX, 1995 |
| Most passing touchdowns, career | Tom Brady | 21 | |
| Most interceptions thrown, one game | Rich Gannon | 5 | XXXVII, 2003 |
From Pro Football Reference’s Super Bowl leaders. Current through Super Bowl LX.
Rushing and receiving
Rushing yards are gained by running with the ball, and receiving yards by catching a pass and running on.
| Record | Player | Figure | Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most rushing yards, one game | Timmy Smith | 204 | XXII, 1988 |
| Most rushing yards, career | Franco Harris | 354 in 4 games | |
| Most receiving yards, one game | Jerry Rice | 215 | XXIII, 1989 |
| Most receiving yards, career | Jerry Rice | 589 in 4 games | |
| Most catches, one game | James White | 14 | LI, 2017 |
| Most catches, career | Travis Kelce | 35 in 5 games | |
| Most touchdowns, career | Jerry Rice | 8 |
From Pro Football Reference’s Super Bowl leaders; Kelce’s career total confirmed by NFL.com. Current through Super Bowl LX.
Timmy Smith’s 204 rushing yards came in Washington’s 42-10 win over Denver in January 1988, and the record has stood for almost four decades (Super Bowl leaders). Jerry Rice’s 215 receiving yards came a year later, in the game Joe Montana finished with the 92-yard drive to John Taylor.
Defence and kickingThe defence (US spelling: defense) is the eleven players trying to stop the other team scoring, and the defense stats page covers how their numbers are counted.
| Record | Player | Figure | Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most sacks, one game (official era) | Reggie White, Darnell Dockett, Kony Ealy, Grady Jarrett | 3 each | XXXI, XLIII, 50, LI |
| Most sacks, one game (including charted) | L.C. Greenwood | 4 | X, 1976 |
| Most sacks, career (official era) | Charles Haley and Von Miller | 4.5 each | |
| Most sacks, career (including charted) | L.C. Greenwood | 5 in 4 games | |
| Most interceptions, one game | Rod Martin | 3 | XV, 1981 |
| Most interceptions, career | Larry Brown, Chuck Howley, Rod Martin | 3 each | |
| Most field goals, one game | Jason Myers | 5 | LX, 2026 |
| Most field goals, career | Harrison Butker and Jake Elliott | 9 each | |
| Most points, career | Jerry Rice | 48 |
From Pro Football Reference’s Super Bowl leaders; Myers’ record from NFL.com and the shared career field goal record from CBS Sports. Current through Super Bowl LX.
The two versions of the sack record come from the stat’s history. A sack is when a defender tackles the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage (the line where each play starts) before he can throw, and the NFL didn’t count it officially until 1982. Everything earlier was reconstructed later by researchers working through play-by-plays, game film and photographs, and Pro Football Reference added that charted work to its database in 2021.
Count only what the league officially recorded and the single-game best is three, shared by four players. Include the charted figures and L.C. Greenwood’s four in Super Bowl X in 1976 is the highest. Both are defensible, but they aren’t the same kind of fact, so I’ve given you both rather than quietly picking one.
On kicking, Jason Myers’ five field goals in Super Bowl LX broke a four-way tie at four held by Jake Elliott, Harrison Butker, Ray Wersching and Don Chandler (NFL.com).
What a record doesn’t tell you
This is the part I find genuinely interesting, as records and stats don’t always give you the bigger picture. In a sport that is heavy with data analysis, the records need shouldn’t also be taken at face value!
The biggest passing game in Super Bowl history came in a defeat
Tom Brady threw for 505 yards in Super Bowl LII in February 2018, the most anyone has managed in a Super Bowl and 39 clear of second place, which is also his, the 466 he threw the year before (Super Bowl leaders). Nick Foles threw for 373 on the other side, and Philadelphia won 41-33 (Pro Football Reference).
Brady’s isn’t the only big number that ended in defeat. Kurt Warner threw for 377 yards in Super Bowl XLIII, and Arizona lost 27-23 to Pittsburgh (Pro Football Hall of Fame). Matt Ryan’s 144.1 passer rating in Super Bowl LI is the fourth-highest in a Super Bowl, and Atlanta lost that game after leading 28-3 (Super Bowl leaders).
Thurman Thomas gained 190 yards from scrimmage (rushing and receiving yards added together) for Buffalo in Super Bowl XXV, and the Bills lost by a point (NFL.com). A record measures one player’s output, while the scoreboard measures twenty-two players at once, and the two don’t have to agree.
Career totals reward turning up
The two career passing records in the table above point at different players. Brady leads career Super Bowl passing yards with 3,039 across ten games, while Joe Montana leads career passer rating with 127.8 across four (Super Bowl leaders).
Both lists are accurate, because they measure different things. A total rewards volume and durability, and a rate rewards how well you played while you were out there. That split between counting stats and rate stats runs through every number in the sport, and the QB stats page and the NFL stats hub both work through it.
One game, three different answers
Super Bowl LX in February 2026 shows how far apart the record book and the result can sit. Seattle beat New England 29-13, and the record set that night belonged to the kicker, Jason Myers, whose five field goals scored 17 of Seattle’s points (NFL.com).
The MVP went to running back Kenneth Walker III, who ran for 135 yards on 27 carries and was the first running back to win the award in nearly three decades (NBC). Seattle’s defence matched the Super Bowl record with seven sacks, and that is the nearest the record book gets to the third answer, a defensive performance no single player’s line captures (NBC).
Common questions
Who has won the most Super Bowl MVP awards?
Tom Brady, with five, won in Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLIX, LI and LV. Joe Montana and Patrick Mahomes are next with three each.
What was the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history?
The San Francisco 49ers beat the Denver Broncos 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV in January 1990, a margin of 45 points. Those 55 points are also the most any team has scored in a Super Bowl.
What is the highest-scoring Super Bowl?
Super Bowl XXIX in January 1995, when San Francisco beat San Diego 49-26 for a combined 75 points. The lowest-scoring was Super Bowl LIII in February 2019, when New England beat the Los Angeles Rams 13-3.
Has a Super Bowl ever gone to overtime?
Twice in sixty games. New England beat Atlanta 34-28 in Super Bowl LI in February 2017, and Kansas City beat San Francisco 25-22 in Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024.
Who has the most passing yards in a Super Bowl?
Tom Brady, with 505 yards for New England in Super Bowl LII in February 2018. The Patriots lost that game 41-33 to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Go to the source
If you want to dig into the records yourself, these are the places the numbers on this page come from.
- Pro Football Reference: Super Bowl history: every result, score and MVP since 1967
- Pro Football Reference: Super Bowl leaders: the single-game and career individual records
- Pro Football Hall of Fame: Super Bowl records held by Hall of Famers: which of these records belong to players now in Canton
- Pro Football Hall of Fame: Hall of Famers in every Super Bowl: game by game, who was on the field
- The 2026 NFL rulebook: the overtime and scoring rules quoted above
For the stories behind single plays rather than totals, the Decoded by the Play series starts with Montana to Taylor in Super Bowl XXIII and Elway’s helicopter in Super Bowl XXXII.
Where to go next
- Every Super Bowl winner has the full results list from 1967 and every franchise’s record.
- The Super Bowl guide explains how the game works and how the two teams get there.
- How to watch the Super Bowl covers kickoff times, channels and watch parties.
- The positions guide explains every role named on this page.