In baseball, the batting average (BA) is defined by the number of hits divided by at bats. It is usually reported to three decimal places and pronounced as if it were multiplied by 1,000: a player with a batting average of .300 is "batting three-hundred." A point (or percentage point) is understood to be .001. If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken to more than three decimal places.
Catcher Josh Gibson, whose career ended in 1946, has the highest batting average in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. He batted .372 over 14 seasons, mostly with the Homestead Grays. In addition, he also holds the single-season record for highest batting average in major league history at .466 in 1943. Gibson never recorded a batting average of under .316 in any qualifying season. Ty Cobb is second all-time with a career batting average of .366. He won a record 11 batting titles in the American League from 1907–1909, 1911–1915 and 1917–1919. Oscar Charleston is third with a career batting average of .364. He is the only player to have won consecutive Triple Crowns, having done so in 1924 and 1925.
A player must have a minimum of 5,000 at-bats to qualify for the list. For Negro League players, the minimum is set at 1,800 at-bats, or 5,000 at-bats combining both Negro League and AL/NL appearances.
| Rank | Rank among leaders in career batting average. A blank field indicates a tie. | |
| Player | Name of the player. | |
| BA | Total career batting average. | |
| Denotes elected to National Baseball Hall of Fame. | ||
| Bold | Denotes active player. |
Different sources of baseball records present somewhat differing lists of career batting average leaders. Until the incorporation of statistics from Negro league baseball into major-league records in 2024, Ty Cobb was the consensus leader. Subsequently, he was supplanted by Josh Gibson on the official MLB leaderboard.[1]
, no active player appears in the below list; the active player ranking highest is Jose Altuve in 149th with a .3060 career batting average.
| Rank | Player | BA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Gibson | .3716 | |
| 2 | Ty Cobb | .3662 | |
| 3 | Oscar Charleston | .3634 | |
| 4 | Rogers Hornsby | .3585 | |
| 5 | Jud Wilson | .3500 | |
| 6 | Turkey Stearnes | .3477 | |
| 7 | Ed Delahanty | .3458 | |
| 8 | Buck Leonard | .3448 | |
| 9 | Tris Speaker | .3447 | |
| 10 | Billy Hamilton | ||
| 11 | Ted Williams | ||
| 12 | Dan Brouthers | .3424 | |
| 13 | Babe Ruth | .3421 | |
| 14 | Harry Heilmann | .3416 | |
| 15 | Willie Keeler | .3413 | |
| 16 | Bill Terry | .3412 | |
| 17 | George Sisler | ||
| 18 | Lou Gehrig | ||
| 19 | Mule Suttles | .3390 | |
| 20 | Jesse Burkett | ||
| 21 | Tony Gwynn | ||
| 22 | Nap Lajoie | ||
| 23 | Bullet Rogan | .3369 | |
| 24 | Cristóbal Torriente | .3356 | |
| 25 | Ben Taylor | .3347 | |
| 26 | Al Simmons | .3342 | |
| 27 | Paul Waner | ||
| 28 | Eddie Collins | ||
| 29 | Fats Jenkins | .3330 | |
| 30 | Sam Thompson | .3314 | |
| 31 | Cap Anson | ||
| 32 | Stan Musial | ||
| 33 | Dick Lundy | ||
| 34 | Red Parnell | ||
| 35 | Heinie Manush | ||
| 36 | Willie Wells | .3285 | |
| 37 | Wade Boggs | .3279 | |
| 38 | Rod Carew | .3278 | |
| 39 | Honus Wagner | .3276 | |
| 40 | Hugh Duffy | ||
| 41 | Biz Mackey | .3254 | |
| 42 | Jimmie Foxx | .3253 | |
| 43 | Earle Combs | .3247 | |
| 44 | Joe DiMaggio | .3246 | |
| 45 | Babe Herman | .3245 | |
| 46 | Cool Papa Bell | .3241 | |
| 47 | Joe Medwick | .3236 | |
| 48 | Hurley McNair | .3232 | |
| 49 | Edd Roush | .3227 | |
| 50 | Sam Rice | .3223 |
| Rank | Player | BA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | George Scales | .3218 | |
| 52 | Chaney White | .3214 | |
| 53 | Kiki Cuyler | ||
| 54 | |||
| 55 | Charlie Gehringer | .3204 | |
| 56 | Chuck Klein | .3201 | |
| 57 | Pie Traynor | ||
| 58 | Mickey Cochrane | ||
| 59 | Kirby Puckett | .3181 | |
| 60 | Earl Averill | .3178 | |
| 61 | Vladimir Guerrero | ||
| 62 | Arky Vaughan | ||
| 63 | Roberto Clemente | ||
| 64 | Joe Kelley | .3169 | |
| 65 | Zack Wheat | .3167 | |
| 66 | Roger Connor | ||
| 67 | Lloyd Waner | ||
| 68 | Todd Helton | ||
| 69 | George Van Haltren | .3163 | |
| 70 | Frankie Frisch | .3161 | |
| 71 | Goose Goslin | .3160 | |
| 72 | George Carr | .3151 | |
| 73 | Hank Greenberg | .3135 | |
| 74 | Jackie Robinson | .3133 | |
| 75 | Jack Fournier | .3132 | |
| 76 | Elmer Flick | .3130 | |
| 77 | Nomar Garciaparra | ||
| 78 | Larry Walker | ||
| 79 | Bill Dickey | .3125 | |
| 80 | Manny Ramirez | ||
| 81 | Johnny Mize | ||
| 82 | Joe Sewell | ||
| 83 | Fred Clarke | ||
| 84 | Edgar Martínez | .3115 | |
| 85 | Freddie Lindstrom | ||
| 86 | Bing Miller | .3113 | |
| 87 | .3112 | ||
| 88 | .3110 | ||
| 89 | .3108 | ||
| 90 | .3107 | ||
| 91 | Luke Appling | ||
| 92 | Jim O'Rourke | ||
| 93 | .3099 | ||
| 94 | Jim Bottomley | .3096 | |
| 95 | Derek Jeter | .3095 | |
| 96 | Sam Crawford | .3094 | |
| 97 | Bob Meusel | .3092 | |
| 98 | Magglio Ordóñez | .3090 | |
| 99 | Jack Tobin | ||
| 100 | Branch Russell |