The most 40-point games in NBA history are dominated by one player by such a wide margin that the rest of the leaderboard feels like a separate competition. Wilt Chamberlain has 271 career 40-point games. Michael Jordan, the all-time runner-up, has 173. The gap between Wilt and the rest of the top ten is wider than the gap between #2 and #10. The 40-point club is selective, but its all-time leaderboard is essentially a story about one season Wilt put together that nobody else has come close to repeating.
Wilt Chamberlain — the impossible season
In the 1961-62 season, Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game across 80 regular-season starts. He scored 40 or more points in 63 of those 80 games — 79% of the season. That single-season total is more 40-point games than any player except Jordan, Bryant, and Harden have produced across their entire careers. Wilt also has the famous 100-point game from that year. The era was different — pace was historic, the three-point line didn't exist, and Wilt played an average of 48.5 minutes per game including overtimes — but the volume is so far beyond modern context that the asterisk barely matters.
The modern challengers
After Wilt and Jordan, the leaderboard is recognizable to anyone who has watched NBA scoring across the last twenty-five years:
- Kobe Bryant — 122 career 40-point games, third all-time
- James Harden — 107 career 40-point games, fourth all-time
- Kevin Durant — 72 career 40-point games, seventh all-time
- Allen Iverson — 79 career 40-point games, sixth all-time
Harden's 107 is particularly notable because he's the only player on the modern half of the list whose count is still actively growing in his late playing years. His 2018-19 season, when he averaged 36.1 PPG, included over 30 individual 40-point games on its own.
The full top 10
Here's the all-time top 10 most career 40-point games (regular season):
- Wilt Chamberlain — 271
- Michael Jordan — 173
- Kobe Bryant — 122
- James Harden — 107
- Elgin Baylor — 88
- Allen Iverson — 79
- Kevin Durant — 72
- Rick Barry — 70 (tied)
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — 70 (tied)
- George Gervin — 68
The 1960s representation (Wilt, Baylor, Barry) reflects the era's pace and individual scoring volume. Kareem at 70, despite a 20-year career and the all-time scoring crown until LeBron broke it, illustrates how cumulative scoring records and per-game volume records can diverge.
Why 40-point games are getting more common
The modern NBA's pace and three-point shooting have made 40-point games more frequent league-wide. Players today take more shots per game, and one made three is worth more than 1960s big-man scoring on the same possession. League-wide 40-point game totals have climbed almost every season since the early 2000s. Multiple modern stars (Joel Embiid, Luka Dončić, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard) are stacking 40-point games at career paces faster than most legends did. The leaderboard at the top is locked, but the bottom half is very much in motion — Durant, Curry, Embiid, and Dončić all have a real chance to finish their careers in the top ten.
Wilt's record will stand forever
Wilt's 271 isn't going to fall. Modern players play around 75 games per regular season — fewer than the 80-game schedule of Wilt's prime, and fewer minutes per game in an era of load management. To match Wilt's career total, a modern player would need roughly 13 career seasons averaging 21 40-point games per season — a pace nobody since Wilt himself has come close to sustaining. Jordan's 173 is theoretically catchable; Wilt's 271 belongs to a different sport.
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