The most home runs ever hit in a single MLB season is 73 by Barry Bonds in 2001 — the official record set during baseball’s PED era. The “clean” home run record is held by Aaron Judge, who hit 62 home runs in 2022 to break Roger Maris’s American League record of 61 set in 1961. Babe Ruth held the single-season record (60 in 1927) for 34 years before Maris broke it. From 1998 to 2001, the 60-home-run barrier was broken six times — all during the height of the steroid era. Here are the 20 best home run seasons in MLB history, the PED context behind the leaderboard, and the “clean” record holders that many fans consider the real benchmark.
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The Barry Bonds 73-home-run record (and why it stands alone)
Barry Bonds hit his 73rd home run on October 7, 2001 — the final day of the regular season — off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dennis Springer. Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s three-year-old record of 70 home runs from 1998. The 2001 season was Bonds’s age-36 year and represented the peak of what is widely considered a PED-fueled offensive explosion. Bonds added a 1.379 OPS that year, hit 137 RBIs, drew 177 walks (35 intentional), and won the second of his eventual four consecutive MVP awards. The 73-home-run record has not been threatened since: the closest anyone has come in the 24 years since is Aaron Judge’s 62 in 2022 — 11 home runs short. Bonds’s record will likely remain the official MLB record indefinitely, though its asterisked legacy is permanent in the public conversation about baseball history.
The PED context is essential to understanding the home run leaderboard. The top six single-season home run totals in MLB history all came between 1998 and 2001 — Bonds (73), McGwire (70), Sosa (66), McGwire (65), Sosa (64), Sosa (63). Before 1998, only two players in MLB history had ever hit 60+ home runs (Ruth in 1927 with 60 and Maris in 1961 with 61). After 2001 — when MLB began enforcing PED testing — no player hit 60+ home runs for 21 straight seasons. Then Aaron Judge hit 62 in 2022. Judge’s 62-home-run season is considered the most legitimate post-1961 record because it happened with full PED testing and in an era where league-average power is up but no individual player has chemistry-assisted advantages. Most baseball fans and historians consider Judge’s 62 (and Maris’s 61) the “real” home run records.
The pre-PED era: Ruth, Maris, Greenberg, and Foxx
Before 1961, only one player had ever hit 60 home runs: Babe Ruth in 1927. Ruth hit 59 in 1921 and 60 in 1927 — both records that stood for decades. The 60-homer barrier was so symbolic that when Roger Maris broke it with 61 home runs in 1961, MLB Commissioner Ford Frick ordered that an asterisk be attached to Maris’s record because Maris had played a 162-game schedule while Ruth had played 154 games. The “asterisk era” lasted until 1991, when then-Commissioner Fay Vincent officially removed it. The asterisk has since become baseball shorthand for any disputed record — including the post-1998 Bonds/McGwire/Sosa era. Maris’s 1961 season included an unforgettable chase alongside teammate Mickey Mantle, who hit 54 home runs that year and was on pace to break Ruth’s record until injuries derailed him in September.
The other pre-Maris 50+ home run hitters were Hank Greenberg (58 in 1938, blocked from Ruth’s record by intentional walks late in the season), Jimmie Foxx (58 in 1932), Hack Wilson (56 in 1930, which stood as the NL record for 68 years), Ralph Kiner (54 in 1949), and Ruth himself (54 in 1920 and 1928). Hack Wilson’s 56 home runs in 1930 are particularly notable because Wilson also drove in 191 runs that year — an MLB single-season RBI record that has now stood for 95 years and is considered one of the most unbreakable records in baseball. The pre-PED 50+ home run club was an exclusive group of 11 players across 60+ years of baseball history. Between 1998 and 2002 alone, MLB saw 18 different 50+ home run seasons.
The modern era: Judge, Ohtani, and the post-PED 60-home-run chase
Aaron Judge’s 62 home runs in 2022 broke Roger Maris’s American League record that had stood since 1961. Judge’s 62nd home run on October 4, 2022, off Texas Rangers pitcher Jesús Tinoco was an event covered by every major sports outlet in the country. Judge’s chase took 161 games — one game less than Maris needed in 1961. The “clean” home run record significance was acknowledged across the baseball world: Maris’s son even attended several of Judge’s late-September home runs and supported the candidacy of Judge’s record as the real MLB record. Since 2022, Judge has continued his elite power production — 58 home runs in 2024, 53 in 2025 — though he hasn’t approached his 62 mark again. He’s the favorite to lead the AL in home runs again in 2026.
Shohei Ohtani’s 2024 season featured 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases — the first 50-home-run, 50-stolen-base season in MLB history. While Ohtani’s 54 doesn’t crack the all-time top 20 single-season home run totals, the historical significance of pairing it with 50+ steals makes his 2024 the most unique offensive season in baseball history. Among other recent power hitters: Pete Alonso hit 53 home runs in his 2019 rookie season (an MLB rookie record), Matt Olson hit 54 in 2023 (leading MLB), and Giancarlo Stanton hit 59 in 2017 with the Marlins (the most by any post-PED-era player not named Judge). The current era of home run hitting features more players at the 35-45 home run range and fewer extreme outliers — except Judge.
For continuously updated single-season home run leaderboards with full historical context, Baseball-Reference’s single-season home run leaders page is the authoritative source — they maintain comprehensive records for every player with full statistical context. For detailed PED-era analysis and the historical debate over which records should be considered the legitimate marks, SABR’s research archives publish the most rigorous historical analysis of MLB single-season records.
The honest summary on best home run seasons ever: Barry Bonds holds the official MLB record at 73 home runs in 2001, but the PED-era context means most baseball fans and historians consider Aaron Judge’s 62 in 2022 (and Roger Maris’s 61 in 1961) the “real” benchmark single-season home run totals. Before the 1998-2001 PED era, only 11 players in MLB history had ever hit 50+ home runs in a season. Since 2001, only six players have hit 55+ in a single season: Judge (62 in 2022, 58 in 2024), Stanton (59 in 2017), Howard (58 in 2006), Sosa (49 in 2002), and Pujols (50 milestones). Judge’s continued production through 2025 makes him the modern measuring stick for elite single-season home run pace — and his 62 has reset what fans consider the “real” home run record in the post-PED testing era.
— Drew, Legion Report