The Highest-Scoring NFL Game Ever

The highest-scoring NFL game ever was played on November 27, 1966, when Washington routed the New York Giants 72-41 for a combined 113 points. Washington’s 72 points that day also stand as the most any single team has ever scored in an NFL game.

Football scores rarely climb into the triple digits, which is exactly why the biggest shootouts become legend. The games at the top of this list share a common thread: a red-hot offense paired with defensive and special-teams touchdowns that pile points on fast. Here is the full leaderboard of the highest-scoring games in NFL history and the stories behind the numbers. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record: Washington 72, Giants 41 in 1966

On a Week 12 afternoon in 1966, Washington and the Giants combined for 16 touchdowns. Washington scored on offense, defense and special teams, returning a fumble, an interception and a punt for scores on the way to 72 points. The final of 72-41 produced 113 combined points, a number no game has approached since.

The 72 points remain the most by a single team in the regular season. Only the 1940 Chicago Bears, who won an NFL Championship Game 73-0 over Washington, have ever scored more in any game, and no one has topped 72 in the 60 seasons since.

The full leaderboard of highest-scoring NFL games

The table below ranks the highest-scoring games in NFL history by combined points.

Combined	Result	Date
113	Washington 72, NY Giants 41	Nov 27, 1966
106	Cincinnati Bengals 58, Cleveland Browns 48	Nov 28, 2004
105	LA Rams 54, Kansas City Chiefs 51	Nov 19, 2018
103	San Francisco 49ers 63, Brooklyn Dodgers 40	Nov 21, 1948
101	New Orleans Saints 52, NY Giants 49	Nov 1, 2015
101	Oakland Raiders 52, Houston Oilers 49	Dec 22, 1963
99	Denver Broncos 51, Dallas Cowboys 48	Oct 6, 2013
99	Seattle Seahawks 51, Kansas City Chiefs 48	Nov 27, 1983
98	San Diego Chargers 54, Pittsburgh Steelers 44	Dec 8, 1985
98	Chicago Cardinals 63, NY Giants 35	Oct 17, 1948

The Giants appear on the list four times, more than any other franchise, usually on the wrong side of the score. The mix of eras, from 1948 to 2018, shows that offensive explosions are not just a modern phenomenon.

The modern shootouts

For decades the 1966 record sat untouched while the game trended toward defense. Then high-powered passing offenses brought the totals back: the Bengals and Browns combined for 106 in 2004, and the Rams and Chiefs staged a 54-51 Monday night classic in 2018 that produced 105. Those games were driven almost entirely by offense rather than the return touchdowns that fueled the 1966 record, a sign of how much the sport has changed.

Games like these are built on elite quarterback play, the same passers who dominate our most passing yards of all time and most passing touchdowns leaderboards. Big offensive days can also come on the ground, as our most rushing yards in a single game list shows.

Why the record matters

Combined scoring records capture the rare afternoons when defense disappears and both teams simply keep answering. Washington’s 113-point demolition of the Giants remains the gold standard, a number so far ahead of the field that even the wildest modern shootouts fall short. Explosive scoring also tends to define a team’s best seasons, the kind that land franchises on our best regular season record in NFL history leaderboard.

The short version: the highest-scoring NFL game ever was Washington’s 72-41 win over the Giants in 1966, worth 113 combined points, with the Bengals-Browns game of 2004 (106) and the Rams-Chiefs game of 2018 (105) next. As of the 2025 season, no game has come within seven points of the record.