By most estimates the Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle in history, with total casualties on both sides often put at up to around two million. This guide ranks the deadliest battles ever fought by the scale of their human cost, giving the figures as the ranges the sources use. Because months-long campaigns and single days are counted differently, we note where a battle holds a bloodiest-single-day record.
Ranking battles by death toll is harder than it sounds. Most figures count casualties, killed, wounded, captured and missing together, not deaths alone, and the sources often disagree by tens of thousands. A months-long struggle like Verdun cannot be compared cleanly to a single afternoon like Cannae, so we note where a battle holds a bloodiest-single-day record. Where historians give a range, we give the range.
Fort Douaumont at Verdun photographed from the air in late 1916, after months of shelling had turned the ground around it into a field of craters. Public domain
Every battle above links to its own page, each with its own sources. For the aggregate figures and how they are counted, see the list of battles by casualties. We give figures as the ranges the sources use and never invent numbers; see our editorial approach.
Frequently asked questions
What was the deadliest battle in history?
By most estimates the Battle of Stalingrad (1942 to 1943) was the deadliest, with total casualties on both sides often put at up to around two million, though figures vary widely between sources.
What was the deadliest single day in a battle?
It depends on the era: Antietam (1862) was the bloodiest single day in American history, Borodino (1812) the bloodiest single day of the Napoleonic Wars, and Cannae (216 BC) among the bloodiest single days of the ancient world.
What was the deadliest battle of the First World War?
The Somme and Verdun, both in 1916, were the costliest; each is usually put at somewhere between 700,000 and over a million casualties.
What was the deadliest battle of the American Civil War?
Gettysburg (1863), with about 50,000 casualties over three days; Antietam (1862) holds the record for the bloodiest single day.
How are battle casualties counted?
Casualty figures usually combine killed, wounded, captured and missing, which is why they are far higher than death tolls alone and why sources disagree. We give figures as ranges.
Was Cannae really that deadly?
Yes. Rome lost on the order of 50,000 to 70,000 men in a single afternoon in 216 BC, making Cannae one of the bloodiest days in the history of warfare.
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