The death of the complete game
- Complete games have fallen from 2,186 in 1904, which was 87.6 percent of all starts, to 29 in 2025, which is 0.6 percent. The 2024 season's 28 is the lowest total ever recorded.
- The decline never reversed. It survived a brief 1970s plateau, when starters still finished over 1,000 games a year, then resumed: 622 in 1988, 234 in 2000, 104 in 2015, and under 50 every season since 2020.
- The pitcher's job changed because the hitter's did. League strikeouts quadrupled from 9,565 in 1950 to 40,645 in 2025, and max-effort pitching does not last nine innings.
What's happening
The chart draws complete games per season across the American and National Leagues since 1901. A complete game credits a starter who records every out of his team's game, and for the sport's first two decades that was simply the job: 1,913 finished starts in 1901, a peak of 2,186 in 1904, close to nine in ten starts all decade.
The 2025 season produced 29, roughly one per team per year. The count is not falling anymore because there is nowhere left to fall. Since 2020 the two leagues have never combined for more than 50, and 2024 set the all-time low of 28.
A decline with one pause
The fall was steady but not smooth. By 1950 the total had halved to 998, at 40.3 percent of starts. The 1970s brought the one real pause: 1,083 complete games in 1971, 1,009 in 1972, 1,061 in 1973, an era of four-man rotations and durable aces working deep by design. It did not hold. The count dropped to 622 by 1988, to 234 by 2000, which was 4.8 percent of starts, to 165 in 2010 and 104 in 2015.
Nothing in the rulebook removed the complete game. Managers did, one inning at a time, as bullpens specialized and pitch counts hardened into policy. A starter who has thrown 100 pitches in the sixth now hands the ball to a reliever who throws harder than he does.
The hitters closed the door
The other half of the story is in the batter's box. League strikeouts rose from 9,565 in 1950 to 31,356 in 2000 to 40,645 in 2025, and home runs peaked at 6,776 in 2019. Modern hitters swing for damage and accept the strikeout, which forces pitchers to work at maximum effort on every pitch. Nine innings of that is not a workload teams will buy from one arm, and the third trip through a lineup is now treated as a measurable liability rather than a badge of endurance.
What to watch
The floor, mostly. At 28 and 29 in the last two seasons, the complete game is one rule change or one workhorse season away from either a symbolic revival or literal zero. The December release of the Lahman database will add the 2026 season to the series; a year without a single complete game would be a first in major league history, and at the current rate it is a matter of time.
Common questions
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