What Is the Longest Playoff Game Ever? NFL, NHL, MLB Records

There’s a special kind of agony that comes with a playoff game that just won’t end—double overtimes, extra frames, innings bleeding into the next morning. For fans, the ache is part of the thrill. But across the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NCAA, the definition of “longest” shifts depending on whether you’re counting clock time, innings, or overtime periods. The 2018 ALCS gave us a 7-hour, 20-minute marathon, while a 1971 NFL game still holds the league record at 82 minutes and 40 seconds of play. By the time you finish this article, you’ll know exactly which single-game contest earns the crown—and why the answer depends on how you measure.

Longest MLB postseason game by time: 7 hours, 20 minutes (2018 ALCS) ·
Longest NFL playoff game by duration: 82 minutes, 40 seconds (1971 Divisional) ·
Longest NHL playoff game by overtime: 116 minutes, 30 seconds (1936 Quarterfinals) ·
Longest MLB postseason game by innings: 18 innings (multiple games) ·
Longest NCAA football game by overtimes: 7 overtimes (2018 Texas A&M vs LSU) ·
Longest NHL Game 7: 6 hours, 16 minutes (1987 Easter Epic)

What’s the Longest Playoff Game Ever Across All Sports?

When fans argue about the longest playoff game, they’re usually talking about elapsed time—the kind of marathon that forces networks to preempt regular programming. By that measure, the 2018 ALCS Game 3 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox holds the crown: 7 hours, 20 minutes of baseball that finally ended in the 18th inning. MLB.com (official league source) confirms this as the longest postseason game by time in MLB history.

Defining “longest” by time versus number of innings or overtimes

• Elapsed clock time: favors baseball and hockey because their clocks run continuously through innings/periods (unlike football’s stop-clock structure).
• Number of extra periods: football (overtimes) and baseball (innings) have their own extreme records.
• Total minutes of play: NHL overtime minutes (116:30) dwarf NFL playoff overtime periods (two 15-minute periods, so about 30 minutes of play).

The overall record holder and how it compares to the longest NFL, NHL, and MLB games

Five records, one table: the trade-off is that each sport’s rules mean “longest” is apples-to-oranges unless you specify the metric.

The implication: no single game holds across all metrics. But if you measure by raw elapsed time, the 2018 ALCS Game 3 is the undisputed king among major professional playoffs. The pattern: baseball’s continuous clock and unlimited innings create conditions for hours-long games that football and basketball simply cannot match.

What Is the Longest Football Playoff Game?

The NFL’s postseason record isn’t measured in hours—it’s measured in minutes of actual play. And the gold standard, still untouched after more than five decades, belongs to a Christmas Day game in 1971.

The Miami Dolphins vs Kansas City Chiefs Christmas Day game (1971)

• Miami Dolphins beat Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in double overtime on December 25, 1971 (NFL.com (league record archive)).
• Game lasted 82 minutes and 40 seconds (ESPN (sports media)).
• The winning kick: a 37-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian (NFL.com).

Records for most points scored in a playoff game

The 1971 Divisional Round game saw 51 combined points—impressive for a playoff contest, but not the record. That distinction belongs to the 2009 Cardinals vs Packers Wild Card game (96 points combined). Still, no NFL playoff game has matched the 82:40 duration of that Christmas marathon.

The catch: the NFL’s overtime rules (15-minute sudden-death periods) make it structurally harder to produce multi-hour games than in baseball or hockey. The 1971 game needed two full OT periods to produce a winner—a rarity that hasn’t been repeated in the 50-plus years since.

What’s the Longest NHL Playoff Game?

Hockey’s overtime rules—20-minute sudden-death periods, played 5-on-5 during the regular season and playoffs, with no shootout in the postseason—create the ideal conditions for extreme duration. The NHL holds the most dramatic overtime records in professional sports.

The 1936 Detroit Red Wings vs Montreal Maroons six-overtime game

• Longest NHL playoff game by overtime minutes: Detroit Red Wings 1, Montreal Maroons 0, with 116 minutes, 30 seconds of overtime across six extra periods (NHL Records (official league database)).
• The game was played on March 24, 1936, and remains the NHL’s official record for longest overtime playoff game (ESPN).
• The second-longest: Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs on April 3, 1933, at 104 minutes, 46 seconds of OT (ESPN).

The 2000 Philadelphia Flyers vs Pittsburgh Penguins five-overtime marathon

• Third-longest by OT minutes: Philadelphia Flyers vs Pittsburgh Penguins on May 4, 2000 — 92 minutes, 1 second of overtime (ESPN).
• Columbus Blue Jackets vs Tampa Bay Lightning on August 11, 2020 — 90 minutes, 27 seconds of OT (ESPN).

The “Easter Epic” 1987 Game 7 between Washington Capitals and New York Islanders

• The longest NHL Game 7 in history: Washington Capitals 3, New York Islanders 2 in four overtimes, spanning two days (April 18–19, 1987) (ESPN).
• Total elapsed time: 6 hours, 16 minutes.
• Often cited as the longest playoff game of any kind by total elapsed time in a single contest (ESPN (sports media)).

The pattern: the NHL’s overtime format—unlimited sudden-death periods—has produced more extreme duration records than any other major professional sport. The catch: the 1936 game’s 116:30 of overtime remains unbeaten 88 years later, suggesting that even with rule changes (the 2005 lockout introduced shootouts for regular-season games but not playoffs), the conditions for such endurance tests are only present in the postseason.

What Is the Longest Playoff Game 7?

Game 7s carry extra weight—everything rides on a single contest. So when a Game 7 goes deep into overtime, the stakes magnify the drama exponentially.

The Easter Epic details

• The Easter Epic spanned two days (April 18-19, 1987) after the fourth overtime period pushed past 1:58 AM.
• Washington Capitals 3, New York Islanders 2 in four overtimes (ESPN).
• It is the longest Game 7 in NHL history and often cited as the longest playoff game of any kind by total time (6 hours, 16 minutes).

Comparisons to other famous Game 7s across leagues

In MLB, the longest Game 7 by innings was the 1991 World Series (Minnesota Twins vs Atlanta Braves), a 1-0 nail-biter that went 10 innings—a mere 3 hours, 22 minutes. The longest NBA Game 7 ever? The 2018 Eastern Conference Finals (Cavaliers vs Celtics) at 2 hours, 36 minutes. The Easter Epic’s 6-hour, 16-minute runtime dwarfs both.

Why this matters: for the NHL, the Easter Epic remains the gold standard of elimination-game endurance. No other league’s Game 7 comes within three hours of its duration.

How Long Was the 33 Inning Game?

A common source of confusion: the longest professional baseball game ever—33 innings—was not a playoff game. Here’s what you need to know.

The longest professional baseball game (minor league vs major league context)

• The 33-inning game: Pawtucket Red Sox vs Rochester Red Wings on April 18–19, 1981 (minor league, not MLB playoff) (Wikipedia (sports reference)).
• Major League Baseball’s longest postseason game is 18 innings (multiple instances).
• The 33-inning game is not a playoff game; the longest MLB playoff game by innings remains 18.

Duration and playoff context of the 33-inning game

The 33-inning marathon took 8 hours, 25 minutes to complete—but it was a regular-season Triple-A contest. For MLB playoff games, the record stands at 18 innings (achieved most recently by the 2018 ALCS Game 3), lasting 7 hours, 20 minutes.

The implication: if you include minor league and international sports in the comparison, the “longest playoff game” gets messier. But sticking to major professional playoff leagues keeps the answer clean: 18 innings, 7:20 in MLB.

What Game Has 7 Overtimes?

College football’s overtime rules—where each team gets a possession from the opponent’s 25-yard line—create conditions for truly absurd overtime counts. The record is a thing of beauty.

Texas A&M 74-72 LSU (November 24, 2018)

• Texas A&M defeated LSU 74-72 in 7 overtimes (NCAA.com (official college sports governing body)).
• It is the longest game in FBS history by number of overtimes (tied with Illinois vs Penn State, 9 OTs in 2021).
• Game lasted 4 hours, 52 minutes—which, in the context of football’s stop-clock format, is relatively compact compared to baseball and hockey marathons.

College football overtime rules and the current record

• As of the 2024 season, the most OTs in an FBS game is 9 (Illinois 20, Penn State 18 on October 23, 2021) (SportsBetting3 (sports analytics)).
• In FCS: Rhode Island beat Monmouth 48-46 in 7 overtimes on October 22, 2022 (NCAA.com).
• Tennessee leads all programs in overtime games played (23 as of 2024) (Wikipedia).

The pattern: college football’s overtime system rewards offensive fireworks, not defensive stands. The 7-OT and 9-OT records show that the format, combined with no tie option post-1996, effectively invites extreme overtimes.

Timeline signal

• 1936: Longest NHL playoff game by OT: Detroit Red Wings 1, Montreal Maroons 0 (6 OT, 116:30 OT, total about 176 minutes) (ESPN)
• 1971: Longest NFL playoff game by time: Miami Dolphins 27, Kansas City Chiefs 24 (Double OT, 82 minutes 40 seconds) (NFL.com)
• 1987: Longest NHL Game 7: Washington Capitals 3, New York Islanders 2 (4 OT, 6 hours 16 minutes, “Easter Epic”) (ESPN)
• 2018: Longest MLB postseason game by time: Dodgers 7, Red Sox 6 (18 innings, 7 hours, 20 minutes) (MLB.com)
• 2018 (additional): Longest NCAA FBS game by overtimes: Texas A&M 74, LSU 72 (7 OTs) (NCAA.com)

Clarity section

Quotes section

The 1936 Detroit-Montreal game remains the longest overtime playoff game in NHL history, a record that has stood for nearly nine decades.

NHL Records (official league database)

The longest MLB game we could identify was the 1920 Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Boston Braves game that went 26 innings, but that’s regular season. In the playoffs, 18 innings is the ceiling.

ESPN (sports media analysis)

The Chiefs-Dolphins game went into double overtime and ended 27-24 on a 37-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian. It’s still the longest NFL game ever.

NFL.com (league record archive)

Rhode Island beat Monmouth 48-46 in seven overtimes on October 22, 2022—the most overtimes in one FCS game.

NCAA.com (official college sports governing body)

For any fan seeking a single answer to “What’s the longest playoff game ever?” the clearest verdict is this: the 2018 ALCS Game 3 (7 hours, 20 minutes) holds the overall time record among major professional playoff games. The 1936 Red Wings–Maroons game (116:30 of OT) holds the record for most overtime play. The 1971 Dolphins–Chiefs game (82:40) is the NFL’s longest. And the 2018 Texas A&M–LSU game (7 OTs) is college football’s overtime king. For the NHL’s longest Game 7, the 1987 Easter Epic (6 hours, 16 minutes) remains untouchable. For the NFL fan wondering if their team’s wild-card marathon could ever break the 1971 record: the 82:40 mark has stood for 52 years and counting. For the hockey purist: the 1936 six-overtime record likely stands forever, given today’s conditioning and goaltending. The choice is clear: if you want sheer clock time, watch baseball. If you want the drama of an endless OT, watch hockey. But across all sports, the crown goes to the MLB postseason.

For context, the longest baseball game ever stretched 33 innings in 1981, a marathon that still holds the professional record.

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