In the 150-year history of MLB, certain individual achievements stand out above the rest. They are held in such high regard because they are the rarest of feats.
Only 24 pitchers have thrown a perfect game. Just 36 players have hit .400 in a season. In between the two is the accomplishment that's been attained by a mere 32 players—smashing 50 or more home runs in a single campaign.
The History of 50-Home Run Seasons
Fittingly, MLB has had 50 instances of a player hitting at least 50 home runs in one season.
New York Yankees legend Babe Ruth was the first major leaguer to reach the 50-HR plateau in 1920 when he hit 54. The all-time great went on to exceed 50 homers three more times, including the iconic number of 60 in 1927—the single-season record that lasted for 34 years until Yankees outfielder Roger Maris mashed 61 HRs in 1961.
After Maris, just three players enjoyed 50-homer seasons over the next 29 years. San Francisco Giants great Willie Mays hit 52 HRs in 1965, and Cincinnati Reds outfielder George Foster clubbed 52 homers in 1977. Detroit Tigers slugger Cecil Fielder went deep 51 times in 1990.
Ruth's record of four 50-homer seasons was matched by Mark McGwire, the power-hitting first baseman of the then Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals, and Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa. The home run duels between McGwire and Sosa reenergized baseball in the late 1990s.
Complete List of 50-Home Run Seasons in MLB History
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton entered the 2025 season with 429 career home runs. In 2017, he hit a career-high 59 homers, 22 more than his next-best total.
To reach 50 HRs, Stanton realizes now that he had to have a "synched-up year where a lot of things go right."
"You have to keep your balance and timing the whole year, not too many lulls," Stanton told . "And even when you’re not feeling good, you've got to be able to have your few hits be homers. Instead of having two singles in your 2-for-20-something stage, you’ve got to squeak out those as homers.
"The whole rhythm of your season has to go right."
The players listed below never missed a beat while hitting 50 or more homers in a season. Here is the full list of 50-HR campaigns.
Year
Player
Team
Home Runs
1920
Babe Ruth
New York Yankees
54
1921
Babe Ruth
New York Yankees
59
1927
Babe Ruth
New York Yankees
60
1928
Babe Ruth
New York Yankees
54
1930
Hack Wilson
Chicago Cubs
56
1932
Jimmie Foxx
Philadelphia Athletics
58
1938
Hank Greenberg
Detroit Tigers
58
1938
Jimmie Foxx
Boston Red Sox
50
1947
Ralph Kiner
Pittsburgh Pirates
51
1947
Johnny Mize
New York Giants
51
1949
Ralph Kiner
Pittsburgh Pirates
54
1955
Willie Mays
New York Giants
51
1956
Mickey Mantle
New York Yankees
52
1961
Roger Maris
New York Yankees
61
1961
Mickey Mantle
New York Yankees
54
1965
Willie Mays
San Francisco Giants
52
1977
George Foster
Cincinnati Reds
52
1990
Cecil Fielder
Detroit Tigers
51
1995
Albert Belle
Cleveland Guardians
50
1996
Brady Anderson
Baltimore Orioles
52
1996
Mark McGwire
Oakland Athletics
52
1997
Mark McGwire
Oakland A’s, St. Louis Cardinals
58
1997
Ken Griffey Jr.
Seattle Mariners
56
1998
Mark McGwire
St. Louis Cardinals
70
1998
Sammy Sosa
Chicago Cubs
66
1998
Ken Griffey Jr.
Seattle Mariners
56
1998
Greg Vaughn
San Diego Padres
50
1999
Mark McGwire
St. Louis Cardinals
65
1999
Sammy Sosa
Chicago Cubs
63
2000
Sammy Sosa
Chicago Cubs
50
2001
Barry Bonds
San Francisco Giants
73
2001
Sammy Sosa
Chicago Cubs
64
2001
Luis Gonzalez
Arizona Diamondbacks
57
2001
Alex Rodriguez
Texas Rangers
52
2002
Alex Rodriguez
Texas Rangers
57
2002
Jim Thome
Cleveland Indians
52
2005
Andruw Jones
Atlanta Braves
51
2006
Ryan Howard
Philadelphia Phillies
58
2006
David Ortiz
Boston Red Sox
54
2007
Alex Rodriguez
New York Yankees
54
2007
Prince Fielder
Milwaukee Brewers
50
2010
Jose Bautista
Toronto Blue Jays
54
2013
Chris Davis
Baltimore Orioles
53
2017
Giancarlo Stanton
Miami Marlins
59
2017
Aaron Judge
New York Yankees
52
2019
Pete Alonso
New York Mets
53
2022
Aaron Judge
New York Yankees
62
2023
Matt Olson
Atlanta Braves
54
2024
Aaron Judge
New York Yankees
58
2024
Shohei Ohtani
Los Angeles Dodgers
54
Record-Breaking and Memorable 50-Home Run Seasons
Anytime a big leaguer began a season by hitting home runs in bunches, talk of chasing the HR record inevitably followed. Maris' pursuit of Ruth had the nation riveted, and the 1961 season is regarded as one of the most magical in baseball history.
Five days after tying Ruth, Maris set a new MLB single-season mark with his 61st homer in the Yankees' regular-season finale against the rival Boston Red Sox.
After a 1994 players strike led to the cancellation of the remainder of the season, including the playoffs and World Series, severe damage had been done to baseball's reputation. The goodwill of the fans was won back by the home run record chases of McGwire and Sosa in 1998.
That year, McGwire and Sosa captured the attention of sports fans as they went head-to-head to not only win the HR title but also to eclipse Maris' 61 homers. McGwire reached 62 home runs first. Sosa joined him five days later.
McGwire homered in his final at-bat of the season to finish with an incredible 70 home runs, four more than Sosa. The record would last only three years. San Francisco Giants outfielder Bonds, at age 36, set a new standard in 2001 with an outrageous 73 homers.
Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani didn't catch Bonds in 2024, but the Japanese superstar made history for becoming the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in one season.
Interest in Ohtani's 50-50 bid intensified as he entered September on pace to achieve both marks. He notched his 50th steal and 50th homer in the same game in one of the greatest individual performances in MLB history—6-for-6, three HRs, two steals and 10 RBIs.
Trends and Era-Based Differences in 50-Home Run Seasons
When Ruth established a new MLB standard with 60 home runs in 1927, the Yankees icon hit more homers than all but three clubs in the 16-team major leagues. Starting with the first-ever 50-HR campaign in 1920, Ruth ushered in the Live Ball Era with his monumental individual displays of power.
Over the next six decades, MLB saw just 13 seasons of 50 homers or more by a player. Despite an attempt to help hitters by lowering the mound after the 1968 campaign—known as the "Year of the Pitcher" when St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob Gibson set a modern-day ERA record of 1.12—only one big leaguer surpassed 50 home runs (Foster's 52-HR aberration in '77).
The prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball had home run totals skyrocketing in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. During that period of the Steroid Era, a total of 18 50-homer campaigns took place. Also, from 1996 to 2002, MLB had multiple 50-HR sluggers in one season.
Today's baseball is dictated by analytics, with MLB team front offices looking to leverage the launch angle of hitters' full-force swings against the unprecedented high velocity of pitchers that registers well past 100 mph. The combination has produced a perfect recipe for strikeouts—but also home runs.
The feast-or-famine style of ball caused MLB's season HR total to exceed 6,000 for the first time. In 2017, 6,105 homers were hit league-wide, and in 2019, a new all-time high was set with a combined 6,776 home runs, according to Baseball Almanac.
Generational sluggers like Aaron Judge have emerged to add to MLB's 50-homer season total. The Yankees outfielder crushed 52 HRs in 2017, an American League-record 62 in 2022 and 58 in 2024.