The Highest-Scoring Super Bowl Ever

The highest-scoring Super Bowl ever was Super Bowl XXIX on January 29, 1995, when the San Francisco 49ers beat the San Diego Chargers 49-26 for 75 combined points. Steve Young threw a record six touchdown passes as San Francisco controlled the game from the opening drive.

Most Super Bowls are defensive struggles or one-sided routs, so the highest-scoring editions stand out as offensive showcases. Here is the full leaderboard of the highest-scoring Super Bowls, the story behind the 1995 record, and how modern shootouts compare. All figures are through Super Bowl LIX.

The record holder: 49ers 49, Chargers 26

San Francisco entered Super Bowl XXIX as heavy favorites and played like it. Steve Young, finally stepping out of Joe Montana’s shadow, threw for six touchdowns, breaking Montana’s own Super Bowl record of five and earning MVP honors. The 49ers scored on their opening possession and never trailed, piling up 49 points, the most any team has ever scored in a Super Bowl.

The Chargers were not embarrassed offensively; their 26 points would have been competitive in most title games. But San Francisco’s relentless scoring pushed the combined total to 75, a mark no Super Bowl has matched in three decades.

The full leaderboard of the highest-scoring Super Bowls

The table below ranks the highest-scoring Super Bowls by combined points.

Rank	Combined	Result	Super Bowl	Date
1	75	49ers 49, Chargers 26	XXIX	Jan 29, 1995
2	74	Eagles 41, Patriots 33	LII	Feb 4, 2018
3	73	Chiefs 38, Eagles 35	LVII	Feb 12, 2023
4	69	Cowboys 52, Bills 17	XXVII	Jan 31, 1993
5	65	Ravens 34, 49ers 31	XLVII	Feb 3, 2013
6	62	Patriots 34, Falcons 28 (OT)	LI	Feb 5, 2017
7	61	Patriots 32, Panthers 29	XXXVIII	Feb 1, 2004
8	56	Packers 35, Patriots 21	XXXI	Jan 26, 1997
8	56	Packers 31, Steelers 25	XLV	Feb 6, 2011
10	55	Broncos 31, Packers 24	XXXII	Jan 25, 1998

Only four Super Bowls have topped 68 combined points, and three of them, XXIX, LII and LVII, sit at the very top. The list blends 1990s scoring festivals with modern shootouts like the Eagles-Patriots and Chiefs-Eagles classics.

The modern challengers: Super Bowls LII and LVII

The record has been threatened twice in recent years. In Super Bowl LII, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots 41-33 for 74 combined points in a game famous for its trick plays and near-total absence of defense. Five years later, Super Bowl LVII saw the Kansas City Chiefs edge the Eagles 38-35 for 73, another back-and-forth thriller. Both fell just short of the 49ers’ 75, but they signal how the pass-friendly modern game keeps big Super Bowl totals within reach.

It is worth noting how these games differ from the record. Super Bowl XXIX was a wire-to-wire rout in which one team scored 49; the modern challengers were genuine shootouts, decided by a single score, with both offenses trading blows into the fourth quarter. That distinction matters: the highest combined totals can come either from a dominant offensive display or from two great attacks canceling out the defenses. The 1995 49ers managed the former so completely that no back-and-forth thriller has yet matched it.

Why these games happen

High-scoring Super Bowls tend to feature at least one elite offense clicking on every cylinder, few turnovers that stall drives, and defenses that cannot get off the field. The 1995 49ers had a Hall of Fame quarterback throwing to a loaded receiving corps; the modern examples paired star quarterbacks in track meets. When the biggest stage meets that kind of offensive firepower, the scoreboard climbs.

These offensive showcases are the opposite of the routs on our biggest blowout in NFL history leaderboard, and the franchises that reach these games are often the same ones near the top of our most Super Bowl appearances list. The MVP performances that define them, like Steve Young’s six-touchdown night, feed directly into the most Super Bowl MVPs rankings.

Why the record matters

The highest-scoring Super Bowl captures the championship game at its most entertaining, a night when offense overwhelms everything else. Super Bowl XXIX’s 75 points, powered by Steve Young’s record six touchdowns, has stood as the benchmark for 30 years, even as modern shootouts have crept close. It remains the standard for offensive spectacle on the sport’s biggest stage.

The short version: Super Bowl XXIX, the 49ers’ 49-26 win over the Chargers on January 29, 1995, is the highest-scoring Super Bowl ever with 75 combined points. Super Bowls LII (74) and LVII (73) are the closest challengers, through Super Bowl LIX.