Who Has Won the Most Super Bowls?

Updated: April 18, 2025

The 2019 NFL season nears its end and just like every other season for the past 53 years this one will end the league’s premier game – the Super Bowl.

Who Has Won the Most Super Bowls up to 2020?

• The Patriots and Steelers now each have six Super Bowl victories among NFL franchises.
• The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers are next with five wins each.
• New England has the most appearances in the Super Bowl with 11.
• The Patriots also hold the distinction, along with the Denver Broncos, of having lost the most Super Bowls (5).
• The Buffalo Bills made four straight Super Bowls between 1990 and 1993.
• They are the only team in NFL history to lose four straight Super Bowls.
• There are just four franchises that have never even played in the Super Bowl.
• The Houston Texans, who were recently eliminated from this year’s postseason, are one such franchise.
• The others include the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Super Bowl LIV takes place on Sunday, February 2, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. This marks the 11th time the NFL’s title game will be held in the South Florida area and the sixth such game held in Miami Gardens. The Super Bowl is rich in history and last year’s Lombardi Trophy winners, the New England Patriots, have a special place in it. The Patriots, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, hold the distinction of having won the most Super Bowls titles.

The Steel Curtain

When Chuck Noll took over as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, the franchise was miserable. Noll changed all of that by using the draft to put together one of the greatest lineups in the history of the game. In consecutive drafts, Noll chose Hall of Famers Joe Greene (1969), Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount (1970), Jack Ham (1971), and Franco Harris (1972). Then, Noll pulled off one of the most incredible drafts in pro football history. In1974, the Steelers drafted Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth, and Mike Webster. All four are in the Hall of Fame. Shortly after Noll assembled his cast of Hall of Famers, the Steelers began winning… a lot. Pittsburgh made the playoffs in 1972 and ’73, but failed to advance to the Super Bowl. The 1974 season would prove to be a turning point in franchise history. The Steelers beat their nemesis Oakland in the AFC championship and then beat Minnesota 16-6 for their first-ever Super Bowl. Noll and Pittsburgh repeated the following season beating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 as Swann made some of the most acrobatic catches in the history of the NFL. The Steelers won their division title in both ’76 and ’77 but bowed out of the playoffs in the AFC championship to Oakland in ’76 and to Denver in the ’77 divisional playoffs. Pittsburgh then won two more consecutive Super Bowls, XIII and XIV, at the end of the 1978 and ’79 seasons. The Steelers were the first team to win consecutive Super Bowls twice and the first team to win the Lombardi Trophy four times. The Hall of Famers drafted in the 1970s began to retire in the early and mid-1980s. The Steelers finally made another Super Bowl at the end of the 1995 season, once again facing the Dallas Cowboys. Pittsburgh came out on the short end of that one losing 27-17 to a Cowboys team that won three Super Bowls in four seasons. It would be another decade before Pittsburgh would return again this time facing Seattle in the first Super Bowl played in the Motor City, Detroit, Michigan. The Steelers entered the postseason as the No. 6 seed and beat Cincinnati, top-seeded Indianapolis, and Denver to reach Super Bowl XL. Pittsburgh won 21-10 to record the franchise’s fifth Lombardi Trophy. Three seasons later, in just his second year as head coach, Mike Tomlin would lead Pittsburgh to its record sixth Super Bowl win. The Steelers won their division and beat Arizona 27-23 to win Super Bowl XLIII.

Modern Day Dynasty

Rosters like Pittsburgh’s in the 1970s are hard to assemble these days in the free agency/salary cap era. The New England Patriots have figured out how to do it best. The franchise hired head coach Bill Belichick in 2000. The team went 5-11 that first year and has never had another losing season since. In fact, in 19 seasons since Belichick has been the team’s head coach, the Patriots have won the AFC East in all but two of those seasons. New England drafted QB Tom Brady in Belichick’s first draft. One year later, Brady won his first Super Bowl MVP award and New England beat the Rams for the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory. After missing the playoffs in 2002, the Patriots were back winning consecutive Super Bowls at the end of the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Brady won a second Super Bowl MVP in a 32-29 win over Carolina in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Wide receiver Deion Branch won the award the following year when the Patriots beat Philadelphia 24-21. New England then hit a rough patch. In nine seasons after Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Patriots lost two Super Bowls and three AFC championship games. The Patriots finally got back after the 2014 season, one that started one of the more remarkable runs in modern NFL history. In a span of five seasons, New England won three Super Bowls (they also lost one). Brady won two more Super Bowl MVP awards, and was the league MVP in 2017 the same year New England lost to Philadelphia in Super Bowl LII. Even more remarkable was the Patriots run over eight seasons. From the 2011 season through the 2018 campaign, the Patriots won the AFC East each year. They won at least 11 regular season games each season. The Patriots played in eight straight AFC championship games winning four and losing four. In 2018, New England beat Kansas City in overtime in the AFC title game and then proceeded to shut down the Los Angeles Rams offense in a 13-3 victory in Super Bowl LIII. Brady, who has four Super Bowl MVPs, did not win the award this time. It was his wide receiver Julian Edelman who captured his first Super Bowl MVP.