List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders

An automatic home run is achieved by hitting the ball on the fly over the outfield fence in fair territory.

[8] Over the course of his 22-season career, Babe Ruth led the American League in home runs twelve times.

The single season mark of 60 stood for 34 years until Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961 in the American League[12] for which MLB assigned an asterisk until reversing themselves in 1991, citing Maris had accomplished his record in a longer season.

[17][18][19] The current American League record was set in 2022 after being with Roger Maris 61 years, when Aaron Judge hit 62 homeruns.

[14] The lowest home run total to lead a major league was four, recorded in the NL by Lip Pike in 1877 and Paul Hines in 1878.

Barry Bonds, the all-time career home run leader in Major League Baseball, led the league in home runs twice including in 2001 when he set the record single-season mark
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Babe Ruth was first or second in the American League in home runs for every season from 1918 through 1933 except 1922 and set the single-season home run record four times.
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Jimmie Foxx hit 50 home runs in 1938 but finished second in the league to Hank Greenberg who hit 58 that year.
Hank Greenberg, Hall of Famer and 4-time home run champion
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Harmon Killebrew led the league in home runs six times for the Minnesota Twins franchise, once while the team was in Washington and five times in Minnesota.
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Ken Griffey Jr. led the American League in home runs in four seasons during the 1990s, including three consecutively from 1997 to 1999.
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Alex Rodriguez led the American League in home runs five times, three with the Texas Rangers and twice with the New York Yankees.
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Lip Pike led the league with four home runs in 1877, tied with Paul Hines for the lowest total to ever lead a league.
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Gavvy Cravath won six home run titles in the 1910s.
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Mike Schmidt led the National League in home runs eight times, the second most such titles in MLB history.
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Mark McGwire led the league in home runs 4 times including 52, 65, and record-breaking 70 home run seasons. His 58 home runs in 1997 led neither league due to a mid-season trade which split this total across 2 leagues.
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Sammy Sosa led the National League in home runs twice, with 49 and 50, but finished second four times with home run counts of 36, 66, 63, and 64.
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Prince Fielder won a National League home run title in 2007 while his father, Cecil Fielder, won two in the American League in 1990 and 1991.
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Roger Connor placed second in home runs in the National League three times and also won the Players' League's only home run title with 14 in 1890.