Chris Gayle has hit the most sixes in IPL history, 357 across 142 matches from 2009 to 2021, and no active batter sits within 30 of that number. This page is the full all-time top 10, the single-season and single-innings records that go with it, and an honest read on who catches Gayle next. Six-hitting rewards raw power in a way the all-time run-scorers list never quite captures.
Quick Answer - Most Sixes in IPL History
Chris Gayle holds the record for the most sixes in IPL history with 357, hit across 142 matches for KKR, RCB and Punjab Kings from 2009 to 2021. Rohit Sharma leads the active batters on 323, ahead of Virat Kohli on 313 and MS Dhoni on 264. The career order barely shifts season to season, but the single-season record just changed hands, and the same name tops the highest individual scores in IPL history.
हिन्दी: आईपीएल में सबसे ज़्यादा छक्के क्रिस गेल के नाम हैं, 357, और 2026 में 15 साल के वैभव सूर्यवंशी ने एक सीज़न में रिकॉर्ड 72 छक्के जड़कर गेल का पुराना रिकॉर्ड तोड़ दिया।
Stats verified via ESPNcricinfo and the official IPL site, updated 16 July 2026.
Most Sixes in IPL History: Top 10 All-Time List
The career leaderboard is the slowest-moving list in IPL cricket. One overseas great sits at the top, four Indians and five more overseas hitters fill out the ten, and the order changes by a place or two a season at most.
| Rank | Player | Team(s) | Sixes | Career span |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Gayle | KKR / RCB / PBKS | 357 | 2009-2021 |
| 2 | Rohit Sharma | Deccan / MI | 323 | 2008-2026 |
| 3 | Virat Kohli | RCB | 313 | 2008-2026 |
| 4 | MS Dhoni | CSK / RPS | 264 | 2008-2026 |
| 5 | AB de Villiers | Delhi / RCB | 251 | 2008-2021 |
| 6 | Sanju Samson | RR / DC / CSK | 243 | 2013-2026 |
| 7 | David Warner | Delhi / SRH | 236 | 2009-2024 |
| 8 | KL Rahul | RCB / PBKS / LSG / DC | 232 | 2013-2026 |
| 9 | Andre Russell | Delhi / KKR | 223 | 2012-2025 |
| 10 | Kieron Pollard | MI | 223 | 2010-2022 |
Why Six-Hitting Is the Record Everyone Watches
Two numbers own this page. The career record tracks who has cleared the rope most often across a full IPL career, and it has read Chris Gayle, 357, for five years. The single-season record tracks the most in one edition, and for fourteen years it read Gayle again, 59 from 2012.
That second record fell in 2026. A six is the one shot a bowler cannot take back on the same ball, which is why the leaderboard rewards power hitters over pure accumulators. Gayle scored fewer IPL runs than four men below him on this list, yet cleared the rope more than any of them.
Most Sixes in a Single IPL Season
Gayle's 59 sixes from 2012 looked untouchable for over a decade. Andre Russell reached 52 in 2019, and no one else crossed 50 until 2026, when a 15-year-old rewrote the page. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hit 72 sixes for Rajasthan Royals across 16 matches, the most any batter has managed in a single T20 tournament anywhere. He arrived at the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad needing seven to pass Gayle and cleared it inside a few overs. Abhishek Sharma had held the Indian single-season mark at 42 from 2024; Sooryavanshi took the Indian and the all-time record in the same season.
| Rank | Player | Season | Sixes | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | 2026 | 72 | RR |
| 2 | Chris Gayle | 2012 | 59 | RCB |
| 3 | Andre Russell | 2019 | 52 | KKR |
| 4 | Chris Gayle | 2013 | 51 | RCB |
| 5 | Jos Buttler | 2022 | 45 | RR |
| 6 | Chris Gayle | 2011 | 44 | RCB |
| 7 | Abhishek Sharma | 2024 | 42 | SRH |
Chris Gayle: The Record That Refuses to Fall
Chris Gayle's full IPL record is built on one method: attack from the first ball and keep attacking. He hit 357 sixes in 142 matches at a strike rate of 148.96, most of them in a six-year run for Royal Challengers Bangalore. His 175 not out against Pune Warriors in 2013 carried 17 sixes, still the most in a single IPL innings and still the highest individual score in the tournament.
Gayle appears three times in the single-season top six, a concentration no other batter comes close to. The venue helped. RCB's Chinnaswamy ground has short straight boundaries, and Gayle opened there for years with a licence to tee off. Take nothing away from the volume, though. Clearing the rope 357 times across eighteen seasons of the league is a number no one else has matched.
Records Closing In on Gayle's 357
The active chase is a two-man race with a clock on it. Rohit Sharma sits closest on 323, 34 short of Gayle, but he turns 39 next season and Mumbai's 2026 run ended before the playoffs. On the six-hitting he has managed lately, that gap is two more full campaigns in the XI.
Virat Kohli is on 313 and passed 9,000 IPL runs in 2026, yet he has never batted like a pure six-hitter, and 44 more is closer to three seasons of work. MS Dhoni added little to his 264 in 2026, batting deep in the order in a finisher's role. Both men can reach 357 on paper. Each needs a spot and a fit body into his 40s, which is where these projections usually break.
Will Anyone Break the Most-Sixes Record?
Here is the honest verdict: the career record is safer now than it was two years ago, not less safe. The two hitters who could have chased it on raw power, Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard, have both retired on 223, and no active overseas batter is close. Rohit and Kohli are the only realistic active challengers, and age works against both.
That leaves one name that changes the maths. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi turned 15 during a season in which he hit 72 sixes, more than Gayle managed in his record year, and won the IPL 2026 Orange Cap doing it. If he plays a full career at anything near that rate, 357 is not a ceiling, it is a checkpoint he clears before he is 25. The career record will likely hold for a few more seasons, then fall to the teenager who has already taken the season record.
I have gone back and forth on this and landed here: the career record is a formality waiting on one player. Rohit and Kohli are the polite answers, and both fall short the moment you factor in age and the fact that neither hits like a specialist slugger. The real answer is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. A 72-six season at 15 is not a hot streak, it is a different scale of hitting, and he did it against full-strength attacks in a playoff run. The one caveat I will hold is the bouncer. Every young Indian opener eventually gets a short-ball plan built for them, and how he answers it decides whether he hits 40 sixes a season for a decade or 60. Even the lower number gets him past 357 before most players finish settling in.
Most Sixes in IPL: FAQs
Who has hit the most sixes in IPL history?
Chris Gayle holds the record for the most sixes in IPL history with 357, hit across 142 matches for KKR, RCB and Punjab Kings between 2009 and 2021. Rohit Sharma leads the active batters on 323, followed by Virat Kohli on 313 and MS Dhoni on 264. Gayle's total has led the list since his retirement.
What is the record for most sixes in a single IPL season?
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi holds the single-season record with 72 sixes for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2026, hit across 16 matches at the age of 15. He broke Chris Gayle's mark of 59 from the 2012 season, which had stood for fourteen years. Andre Russell's 52 in 2019 is the only other season above 50.
Can anyone break Chris Gayle's record of 357 IPL sixes?
Among active players, Rohit Sharma is closest on 323 and Virat Kohli on 313, but both are near the end of their careers and would need two or three more full seasons. The likelier long-term threat is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who at 15 has already broken the single-season record and could pass 357 if he keeps up his rate.
Why is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's IPL 2026 season a record?
Sooryavanshi hit 72 sixes in IPL 2026, more than any batter has managed in a single edition of the IPL or any other T20 tournament. He also won the Orange Cap as the season's leading run-scorer and reached a century off 37 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad, all at the age of 15 in his second IPL season.
Who has hit the most sixes in a single IPL innings?
Chris Gayle holds the single-innings record with 17 sixes in his unbeaten 175 against Pune Warriors India in 2013, an innings that is also the highest individual score in IPL history. No batter has matched 17 sixes in an innings since, though several have cleared ten in a game.
The Bottom Line
Chris Gayle's 357 sixes is the hardest six-hitting record in the IPL to approach, built on eighteen seasons of nobody matching his mix of volume and clearing rate. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are the only active batters with a live path to it, and both are racing their own age. The single-season record, safe for fourteen years, is already gone, taken by a 15-year-old who hit 72 in one edition. That is six-hitting in the IPL right now: one career record holding firm, and one generational hitter who has served notice on every number Gayle owns.
