The highest score in a Super Bowl game is an NFL record that is broken almost annually these days. Rules have changed to the benefit of the offense, and teams are passing more than ever. That's a recipe for the hierarchy of the highest-scoring NFL Super Bowl games to shift quite frequently. Don't take our word for it, though. We're about to show you.
Scoring records continue to be broken all the time in the NFL—particularly during the regular season. The Super Bowl is a little different. There's only one opportunity to reset the scoring record every year. And yet, that has proven to be more than enough in recent seasons. As you're about to see, many of the highest-scoring NFL games in Super Bowl history have taken place semi-recently.
Points Scored: 75
Final Score: San Francisco 49ers: 49, San Diego Chargers: 26
Welp, the Chargers were part of history in their lone Super Bowl appearance, as the two teams combined for 75 points and 10 touchdowns—both records. It's just too bad that, in their case, they were on the wrong side of it.
The 49ers were just the third team in the NFL to score 500 points in a season. Favored by 18.5 points during this Super Bowl, they easily covered the spread.
Points Scored: 74
Final Score: Philadelphia Eagles: 41, New England Patriots: 33
It didn't matter that temperatures hovered between 10 degrees and minus-4 degrees farenheit in 2018. The Eagles and Patriots combined to turn in the second-highest scoring Super Bowl anyway.
This game is perhaps most remembered for Philadelphia overcoming long odds. They had lost quarterback Carson Wentz due to injury, leaving them to rely on his backup, Nick Foles, and a gritty defense.
As it turns out, though, it was the Eagles' offense that led the way, controlling the pace for much of the game despite the Patriots' 14-point third quarter.
Points Scored: 69
Final Score: Dallas Cowboys: 52, Buffalo Bills: 17
Fun fact: This could've been the highest-scoring Super Bowl tilt in NFL history if not for Bills wideout Don Deebe.
Dallas forced a fumble at one point, which was recovered by defensive lineman Leon Lett. He was on the verge of scoring a touchdown for the Cowboys when Deebe, Buffalo's resident speedster, slapped the ball from his hands a split second before he crossed the goal line.
Ah, well. Dallas and Buffalo will just have to settle for the third-highest scoring Super Bowl game ever. And something tells me the Cowboys will be okay with it, seeing as they won another championship behind quarterback Troy Aikman's four touchdowns.
Points Scored: 69
Final Score: Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 48, Oakland Raiders: 21
Many football fans will remember this Super Bowl as the Pirate Bowl, because of the pirate-themed logos from both teams. They might also remember it for its wild number of Super Bowl prop bets gone haywire, due to how many unexpected plays and performances this championship battle hosted.
Anyway, there was plenty of pillaging going on. Oakland arrived with the NFL's No. 1 offense, but Tampa Bay's No. 1 defense carried off the bounty, picking off Raiders QB Rich Gannon five times, returning three for touchdowns. No other NFL defense has ever scored that many touchdowns in a Super Bowl before.
Points Scored: 66
Final Score: Pittsburgh Steelers: 35, Dallas Cowboys: 31
This matchup is often referred to as the greatest Super Bowl ever played.
Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw for four touchdowns and 338 yards, but the game is actually recalled for the TD that wasn't. Cowboys flamethrower Roger Staubach found a wide-open Jackie Smith in the end zone, but the future Hall of Fame pass-catcher dropped the ball. Had Staubach reeled in that target, this Super Bowl would be tied with Super Bowl XXIX as the highest-scoring one ever.
Points Scored: 65
Final Score: Denver Broncos: 55, San Francisco 49ers: 10
The Super Bowl showdown between the Broncos and Niners in 1990 is actually historically significant for two reasons.
First, of course, there's the place it holds in the pantheon of scoring. Only five other Super Bowls have included higher final totals. Second, and perhaps most impressively in Denver's case, it remains the most lopsided Super Bowl victory the league has ever seen. And given how long the sport has been around, that is definitely saying something.
Points Scored: 65
Final Score: Baltimore Ravens: 34, San Francisco 49ers: 31
The brothers Harbaugh—Baltimore's John and San Francisco's Jim—coached against each other in just the second Super Bowl at the time where both teams scored 30 points. And boy, was the entire game a humdinger.
The Ravens raced to a 28-16 lead before the 49ers rallied to nearly come back and win. But Baltimore ultimately proved to be too much for San Francisco, in large part because Jacoby Jones scored on a touchdown pass and a kick return.
Points Scored: 62
Final Score: New England Patriots: 34, Atlanta Falcons: 28
Here we have yet another Super Bowl to go down in the record books for numerous different reasons.
Obviously, there's the final score. A total of 62 points were tallied, making this the eighth highest-scoring championship bout of all time. But there was also the manner in which New England won.
Trailing 28-3 in the second half, the Patriots staged a raging comeback. And that's not hyperbole. They scored 31 unanswered points, the most in Super Bowl history. They also erased the largest deficit in Super Bowl history. So, I guess you can technically say they picked up three victories in this one game.
Points Scored: 61
Final Score: New England Patriots: 32, Carolina Panthers: 29
Another game in the argument for the greatest Super Bowl ever played, the Patriots and Panthers combined to score zero points in the first and third quarters. And yet, in the end, they still managed to combine for 868 yards and 61 points.
On top of that, the two teams went completely scoreless for a Super Bowl record at 26:55. The drought finally ended when New England's kicker, Adam Vinatieri, converted a field goal with four seconds to play that gave his team the win and an NFL championship.
Points Scored: 61
Final Score: Washington: 37, Buffalo Bills: 24
The Bills not only lost four straight Super Bowls during this era, but they liked to lose them big.
Washington, who scored an NFL-high 485 points in the regular season, raced out to a 24-0 lead against Buffalo's second-worst defense in the NFL. That proved to be the Bills' death knell. Though they wound up hanging 24 points of their own, they didn't have nearly enough firepower to compete with what was, at the time, the league's most dangerous offense.
Get ready for this list to add new candidates in the very near future. At present, these are the only 10 Super Bowl games that have included final scores of 60 or higher, but there's no way that stands.
Use the 2020 NFL season as a guideline. Seven teams are averaging more than 28 points per game. Rewind the clock just five years, and there were only three squads clearing 28 points per game. The trend of more offense is going to continue. Who knows, three years from now, half of the entire league could be putting up nearly 30 points every week.
That much becomes clear even when just looking at our current list. Three of the 10 highest scoring Super Bowls have taken place since 2013. And two of them have come since 2017. It's only a matter of (brief) time before another pair of squads add to that.
For all we know, it might be happening this year.
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