NBA Highest Scoring Individual Games of All Time
Source:
Wikipedia
Key Findings
🏆
Wilt Chamberlain leads in Points in a Single Game with 100 in 2023.
📉
Wilt Chamberlain declined most: -7.7% from 1961 to 1962 (78 → 72).
📅
1962 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.
↔️
Gap in 2023: Wilt Chamberlain is 1.4× larger than Joel Embiid.
About This Dataset
NBA Highest Scoring Individual Games of All Time
The highest individual single-game scoring performances in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game against the New York Knicks on 2 March 1962 is the most iconic statistical achievement in basketball history — a record so far beyond anything since that many consider it permanently untouchable.
Analysis
The top three in Points in a Single Game in 2023 are Wilt Chamberlain (100), Kobe Bryant (81) and David Thompson (73). Wilt Chamberlain tops the list without dominating it, holding 25.4% of what the 5 entities record between them. The other 3 are bunched between 70 and 73 Points in a Single Game. Over 1961–1962 the steepest rise belongs to Wilt Chamberlain: +214.1% (78 → 245).
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia
- Coverage
- 5 entities · 1961–2023 (6 years) · 8 observations
- Measure
- Points in a Single Game
- Last updated
- 6 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Missing years are left empty rather than estimated — no interpolation, no carrying a previous year forward.
- Change is measured between the first and last year in which an entity actually reported a value, so a series that starts late is not penalised for the years before it existed.
- The compound annual rate is (last ÷ first)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, using those same two reported years.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2023.
- An entity that reported nothing in the latest year is still listed — it follows the ranked entities in the table rather than being dropped.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
Was this chart useful?
⚑ Spotted an error in this data? Report it
Cite this chart
Using this chart in an article, report, class or website? Please cite it and link to this page.
Related Charts
More statistics on similar topics
Related
All Time
6.0
Emanuel Lasker
View Chart
2 months ago
Related
2026
355M
Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr, 2025-...
View Chart
2 months ago