Most Super Bowl Losses by a Team

The New England Patriots hold the record for the most Super Bowl losses with six, pulling clear of the field after a 29-13 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX in February 2026. The Denver Broncos are second with five, and no other franchise has lost more than four.

There is a bittersweet truth behind this leaderboard: to lose a Super Bowl, a team first has to reach one, and reaching the biggest game repeatedly is the mark of a genuine contender. The teams at the top of this list are almost all franchises that spent years, or even decades, among the best in the sport. Here is the full leaderboard of the most Super Bowl losses by a team, and the stories behind the heartbreak. All figures are through Super Bowl LX.

The record holder: the Patriots’ six losses

New England’s six Super Bowl defeats span four decades, from a blowout loss to the Chicago Bears after the 1985 season to the 29-13 loss to Seattle in Super Bowl LX. In between came two agonizing defeats to the New York Giants and a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Crucially, the Patriots also won six Super Bowls during the Tom Brady era, so their record number of losses is a byproduct of reaching the game more than any other team.

That balance, six wins and six losses, is the clearest sign of how dominant the franchise was for so long. Losing the Super Bowl six times is only possible for a team that keeps getting there.

The full leaderboard of Super Bowl losses

The table below ranks the teams with the most Super Bowl losses.

Rank	Losses	Team	Super Bowls lost
1	6	New England Patriots	XX, XXXI, XLII, XLVI, LII, LX
2	5	Denver Broncos	XII, XXI, XXII, XXIV, XLVIII
3	4	Buffalo Bills	XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII
3	4	Minnesota Vikings	IV, VIII, IX, XI
5	3	Dallas Cowboys	V, X, XIII
5	3	Kansas City Chiefs	I, LV, LIX
5	3	San Francisco 49ers	XLVII, LIV, LVIII
5	3	Miami Dolphins	VI, XVII, XIX
9	2	Cincinnati Bengals	XVI, XXIII
9	2	Carolina Panthers	XXXVIII, 50

The Patriots and Broncos lead, but the presence of the Cowboys, 49ers and Chiefs, all multiple-time champions, shows how often losses and titles go hand in hand for great franchises.

The Buffalo Bills and four straight losses

No team’s story is more poignant than the Buffalo Bills’. From the 1990 through 1993 seasons, Buffalo reached four consecutive Super Bowls, and lost every one. It remains the only four-in-a-row streak in NFL history, an extraordinary run of sustained excellence that ended each January in defeat. The Bills’ four appearances also pushed several of their stars up the most Super Bowl appearances leaderboard, even without a ring to show for it.

Losing without ever winning

For the Bills and Vikings, tied for third with four losses each, the pain is sharper because neither has ever won a Super Bowl. Minnesota’s four defeats came in the late 1960s and 1970s, when the Vikings were among the NFC’s best teams. Both franchises are reminders that reaching the game is no guarantee of winning it, the flip side of the success tracked in our most Super Bowl wins by team leaderboard. The individuals who thrive on that stage populate the most Super Bowl MVPs list instead.

Why the record matters

Super Bowl losses are a strange kind of achievement: they belong to teams good enough to reach the sport’s biggest stage over and over. The Patriots’ six losses sit atop the list precisely because the franchise was a perennial contender for two decades. And the Bills’ four straight defeats endure as the most human story in the record book, a team that kept climbing the mountain and kept falling just short.

The short version: the New England Patriots have the most Super Bowl losses with six, ahead of the Denver Broncos’ five. The Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings share third with four each, and the Bills’ four came in four straight seasons, all through Super Bowl LX.