The Super Bowl is not just the biggest single sporting event in the United States, it is one of the biggest in the world. In fact, only the UEFA Champions League final boasts more viewership than the NFL’s flagship game.
Since the first Super Bowl was contested in January 1967, the big match has continuously produced so many great stories and champions, fitting its status as one of the greatest shows on earth.
Such is the magnitude of the Super Bowl that it commands the most expensive television sponsorship fees in the United States, with companies of all kinds – from financial heavyweights to betting companies – falling over one another to have a representation in the game.
In this article, we dust off the history books and look at the most successful Super Bowl teams.
NFL Teams with the Most Super Bowl Wins
1. New England Patriots (6 Super Bowls)
Right at the top of the list are the New England Patriots with their six Super Bowl titles. They actually have the same number of Super Bowls as the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the Patriots edge the Steelers on the back of having more Super Bowl appearances (11 against 8).
Interestingly, all of the Patriots’ Super Bowl Wins have come in this century.
Established in 1960 as the Boston Patriots, the team appeared in just two Super Bowls before the turn of the century (1986 and 1997), but their fortunes would change when the legendary duo of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick came together.
Belichick was hired as head coach in 2000, while quarterback Brady was drafted in the same year. The duo would form the fulcrum of the team that dominated the NFL for the best part of the next decade.
The Patriots reached nine Super Bowls in the 18 years between 2002 and 2019, winning the big match in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017, and 2019.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers (6 Super Bowls)
With six Super Bowl wins, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the joint-winningest team in the competition, but they trail the New England Patriots in the number of Super Bowls contested. Pittsburgh has been in eight finals, while New England holds the record with 11 finals.
Not dissimilar to New England’s dominance in the 2000s, the Steelers also established some sort of dynasty in the 1970s, winning four Super Bowls within that decade.
Under legendary coach Chuck Noll, Pittsburgh was almost unstoppable in the mid-to-late 1970s, winning the Super Bowl in 1975, 76, 79, and 80.
They have since added two more triumphs in 2006 and 2009. The Steelers are one of seven teams that have won the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons, but they are the only franchise that has gone back-to-back on two occasions.
3. Dallas Cowboys (5 Super Bowls)
Dallas is one of the most glamorous and followed NFL teams, and they have a decent enough Super Bowl record to back up their status.
They have participated in eight Super Bowls – joint second-best in the competition’s history – winning five of them.
The Dallas Cowboys are the only NFL team to have featured in back-to-back Super Bowls on three occasions (1971-72, 1978-79, and 1993-94).
The Cowboys reached the first Super Bowl of the post-merger era in 1971 but lost to the Baltimore Colts. They bounced back in style in the following year, thrashing the Miami Dolphins in New Orleans to claim their first Super Bowl win.
They added a second title in 1978, before their most dominant period in the mid-1990s, winning the Super Bowl three times in four editions – 1993, 1994, and 1996.
4. San Francisco 49ers (5 Super Bowls)
The San Francisco 49ers have the same number of Super Bowls as the Dallas Cowboys but are edged into fourth place on this list having made one less Super Bowl appearance than Dallas.
The 49ers have featured in seven Super Bowls; Dallas has contested the big match on eight occasions.
San Francisco won four of their five Super Bowl titles between 1982 and 1990, with their first three coming with legendary coach Bill Walsh at the helm of affairs. Walsh was in command for the 1982, 85, and 89 Super Bowl wins, but stepped down after the 1989 triumph.
George Seifert took over the reins and led the team to a successful defense of their crown in 1990. That remains the only time that the 49ers have claimed consecutive Super Bowl wins. Seifert was again in charge when San Francisco added a fifth championship in 1995.
San Francisco was a perfect 5-0 in their first five trips to the Super Bowl, but that record has since been soiled with defeats in 2013 and 2020.
5. Green Bay Packers (4 Super Bowls)
Established over 100 years ago, the Green Bay Packers are the third oldest franchise in the NFL.
They also have the distinction of being the first Super Bowl champions. In fact, the Packers won the first two editions of the Super Bowl in 1967 and 1968.
During those years, the Super Bowl was still officially called the AFL – NFL World Championship game, but once the “Super Bowl” tag was formally taken up for the 1969 edition, the Packers’ successes in 67 and 68 were retrospectively called Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II respectively.
Such is the Packers’ status in NFL folklore that the Super Bowl trophy is named after Vincent Lombardi, the coach who guided the team to those championships in 1967 and 68.
Following their pioneering victories, it took Green Bay almost three decades to regain the championship. They finally returned to winning ways in 1997 and added a fourth in 2011. Their only other Super Bowl appearance was in 1998.
The Packers actually have an NFL record 13 league championships, but nine of them came during the pre-Super Bowl era.
6. New York Giants (4 Super Bowl Wins)
In terms of Super Bowl appearances and wins, the New York Giants have an identical record with the Green Bay Packers.
Both teams have been victorious in four of their five trips to the Super Bowl, but the Giants won their first Championship much later than Green Bay, and are therefore below the Packers on our list.
With 19 appearances in the NFL championship game, the New York Giants hold the record for most championship appearances, but only five of them have come in the Super Bowl era.
Their four Super Bowl wins came in 1987, 1991, 2008, and 2012, while their only defeat in the showpiece game was in 2001 when they were beaten by the Baltimore Ravens in Florida.
7. Denver Broncos (3 Super Bowls)
The Denver Broncos have the dubious honor of joint-worst record in Super Bowl finals. They have emerged on the losing side at five Super Bowls – a record they share with the New England Patriots.
That’s the not-so-good stat. The better stat is that they have three Super Bowl wins to their name.
Formed in 1959, Denver’s early stint in the NFL was largely unremarkable, but they began to find their feet in the late 1970s, advancing to the play-offs for the first time in the 1977 season, the season they also made their Super Bowl debut. They were beaten by the Dallas Cowboys.
More championship heartbreak would follow in the 1980s, with Denver losing consecutive Super Bowls in 1987 and 1988, and another in 1990 in a run of three defeats in four years.
Their luck would eventually change in the late 90s, as they finally got over the line with back-to-back Championships in 1998 and 1999.
The Broncos were champions again in 2016, two years after suffering another Super Bowl defeat.
8. Las Vegas Raiders (3 Super Bowls)
Now in their seventh decade, the Raiders have undergone several changes in base and nomenclature, from Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles Raiders, back to Oakland, and now to Las Vegas, where they have been based since 2020.
They have not won the Super Bowl in their current guise, but they did claim three Championships in their previous forms.
Two of their three Super Bowl titles came when they were based in Oakland, in 1977 and 1981, while the other one was achieved in 1984, while they were a Los Angeles team.
The Raiders contested Super Bowl II in 1968, losing to the Green Bay Packers, while their only other Super Bowl defeat was in 2003, when they were beaten by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
9. Washington Commanders (3 Super Bowls)
Founded as the Boston Braves in 1932, the team moved to Washington in 1937 and competed as the Washington Redskins up until 2019.
From 2020, they were known as the Washington Football Team for a couple of seasons before changing again to the Washington Commanders.
Washington won two league championships before the Super Bowl era and has been Super Bowl winners on three occasions.
Their three Super Bowl championships came under head coach, Joe Gibbs, who had two stints with the Commanders, with his first stint between 1981 and 1992 being the team’s most successful period in the modern era.
Washington won their Super Bowl in 1983, 1988, and 1992, and were losing finalists in 1984. Their only other Super Bowl defeat was in 1973.
10. Kansas City Chiefs (3 Super Bowls)
Rounding out the top 10 of NFL teams with the most Super Bowl wins are the Kansas City Chiefs. They are one of four teams with three Super Bowl triumphs on this list, the others being the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders and the Washington Commanders.
The Chiefs were one of the strongest American football teams in the pre-merger era. They contested the first ever Super Bowl in 1967, losing to the Green Bay Packers, and were champions in 1970 when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Louisiana.
The 1970 Super Bowl was the final edition before the NFL-AFL merger took full effect.
Kansas didn’t quite enjoy the same success post-merger, and it took them half of a century before reclaiming the biggest prize in American Football.
Kansas returned to the Super Bowl in 2020 and would feature in the big game three times in four seasons. They added two more titles within that spell, beating San Francisco in 2020 and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023.
Somewhere in between those two victories was a Super Bowl loss to Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021- the legendary quarterback completing a fairytale title run in his first season away from the New England Patriots.
