MLB complete games per season, 1901 to 2025
MLB complete games per season stood at 29 in 2025, up 3.6% on the previous period.
MLB pitchers threw 29 complete games in 2025. In 1904 the two leagues combined for 2,186, the highest total on record. The lowest is 28, in 2024.
How it is measured
A complete game credits a starting pitcher who records every out of his team's game. The series sums the American League and National League team totals per regular season, from the SABR Lahman Baseball Database (updated each December, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0).
What the curve shows
This is the longest decline in baseball. Starters finished 1,913 games in 1901 and close to 2,000 every season of that decade, peaking at 2,186 in 1904, when finishing what you started was the job. The total halved by 1950 (998), held near 1,000 through a brief 1970s revival (1,009 in 1972), then fell without interruption: 622 in 1988, 234 in 2000, 165 in 2010, 104 in 2015. Since 2020 the leagues have never combined for more than 50 complete games in a season, and 2024 and 2025 produced 28 and 29, roughly one per team per year.
What counts as a complete game?
Why did complete games disappear?
What is the lowest complete game total in MLB history?
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