Most Rushing Yards in a Single Game

The most rushing yards in a single NFL game is 296, set by Adrian Peterson for the Minnesota Vikings against the San Diego Chargers on November 4, 2007. Peterson, then a rookie, edged Jamal Lewis’s mark of 295 by a single yard, and no one has topped it since.

A monster rushing day is one of football’s rarest sights, requiring a runner to carry the ball 30 or more times while a defense fails to stop him. This is a single-game record, which makes it very different from the career and season lists that reward accumulation over years. Here is the full leaderboard of the biggest rushing games in NFL history and the stories behind them. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record: Adrian Peterson’s 296 yards

On a November afternoon in his rookie season, Peterson gashed the Chargers for 296 yards on 30 carries, including a 64-yard touchdown. The performance announced him as a generational talent barely two months into his career and broke a record that had stood for only four years. It remains the only 296-yard game in NFL history and the closest anyone has come to the 300-yard barrier.

Crucially, this is a single-game feat. Peterson ranks fifth on the all-time career rushing list, well behind Emmitt Smith, yet on this one day he outran every back the sport has ever produced.

The full leaderboard of single-game rushing performances

The table below ranks the most rushing yards in a single NFL game.

Rank	Yards	Player	Team	Date
1	296	Adrian Peterson	Minnesota Vikings	Nov 4, 2007
2	295	Jamal Lewis	Baltimore Ravens	Sep 14, 2003
3	286	Jerome Harrison	Cleveland Browns	Dec 20, 2009
4	278	Corey Dillon	Cincinnati Bengals	Oct 22, 2000
5	275	Walter Payton	Chicago Bears	Nov 20, 1977
6	273	O.J. Simpson	Buffalo Bills	Nov 25, 1976
7	266	Shaun Alexander	Seattle Seahawks	Nov 11, 2001
8	259	Jamaal Charles	Kansas City Chiefs	Jan 3, 2010
9	251	Mike Anderson	Denver Broncos	Dec 3, 2000
10	247	Willie Ellison	Los Angeles Rams	Dec 5, 1971

The list blends legends with surprises. Walter Payton’s 275-yard game came while he was fighting the flu, and Jerome Harrison’s 286-yard outburst was a career anomaly for a journeyman back, proof that the single-game record rewards one perfect afternoon rather than a great career.

Single-game versus career and season records

It is easy to confuse the sport’s rushing records, but they measure very different things. Adrian Peterson owns the single-game mark at 296 yards. The career record is Emmitt Smith’s 18,355 yards, built over 15 seasons, and the single-season record is Eric Dickerson’s 2,105 yards from 1984. A player can dominate one list without leading the others, which is exactly what makes each record distinct.

For the full picture, see our leaderboards on the most rushing yards of all time and the most rushing yards in a season.

Why the record matters

The single-game rushing record captures football at its most dominant: one runner imposing his will for 60 minutes. Peterson’s 296 yards is the high-water mark, and the 300-yard barrier it left standing gives the record a tantalizing round number still waiting to be broken. Huge rushing days often power the highest-scoring afternoons, the kind that land on our highest-scoring NFL game leaderboard, and complement the aerial marks on our most passing yards of all time list.

The short version: Adrian Peterson holds the single-game rushing record with 296 yards in 2007, a yard ahead of Jamal Lewis. As of the 2025 season, no player has reached 300, and the mark still stands.