MLB Home Run Leaders: Most Career Home Runs Ever

Barry Bonds holds MLB’s official career home run record with 762, seven more than Hank Aaron’s 755. Babe Ruth (714) and Albert Pujols (703) complete the 700-home-run club.

The top 10 below was checked against MLB’s official all-time leaderboard on September 1, 2026. Every player in it is retired, so the order is settled unless MLB changes its historical record.

The record holder: Barry Bonds and 762 home runs

Bonds began his career as a lean, five-tool outfielder and evolved into the most feared slugger the game had seen. His late-career power surge produced the single-season record of 73 home runs in 2001, and he kept adding to his career total until he retired in 2007 with 762.

Career totals measure repetition and longevity, not the distance of one swing. Our guide to the longest home run ever handles that separate record question.

That total is the official MLB record. It is also inseparable from the steroid-era debate: Bonds was a central figure in the BALCO investigation, was never voted into the Hall of Fame by the writers, and remains a polarizing figure. The number stands, but the argument over it never quite ends.

The full leaderboard of career home run leaders

The table below ranks the all-time MLB career home run leaders.

The list mixes eras and reputations, from Ruth and Aaron to the 1990s and 2000s. MLB does not place an asterisk beside Bonds, Alex Rodriguez or Sammy Sosa in this leaderboard; any moral distinction a fan draws is separate from the official ranking.

What the career leaderboard counts

MLB’s career table counts regular-season home runs in Major League Baseball. Postseason homers are tracked separately and do not raise a player’s number here. The table also does not combine totals from the Negro Leagues, Japan’s NPB or other professional leagues unless those home runs are part of MLB’s recognized major-league statistical record. That shared scope is what makes the comparison consistent.

Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth: the enduring names

For most of baseball history, the record belonged to Babe Ruth’s 714 and then Hank Aaron’s 755. Aaron’s pursuit of Ruth in the early 1970s, completed amid death threats and racist abuse, made his 715th home run in 1974 one of the most important moments in American sports. Some fans describe Aaron’s 755 as their preferred “clean” standard, but that is an opinion about the steroid era, not a separate MLB record.

The 700 club and Albert Pujols

Only four players have ever reached 700 home runs, and Albert Pujols was the most recent to join, hitting his 700th in 2022 during a farewell season. His 703 capped a career that also featured milestones in hits and RBIs, cementing him among the greatest all-around hitters of the modern era. For the single-season side of the record, see our leaderboard of the most home runs in a season.

The next major threshold is 500. Our 500 home run club list covers every player to reach it rather than stopping at the top 10.

Why the record matters

Career home run totals are baseball’s grandest measure of power and longevity, which is why the top of this list is scrutinized so closely. Bonds’s 762 is statistically dominant and officially recognized, yet the debate over how it was achieved keeps Aaron’s 755 firmly in the conversation. The sluggers who reach these heights often anchor championship teams, the kind that pile up titles on the most World Series wins list.

The short version: Bonds’s 762 is the official record. Aaron, Ruth and Pujols are the only other hitters above 700. The steroid-era argument explains why some fans frame the leaderboard differently, but it does not change the total MLB publishes.