Most Threes in a Season: Curry’s 402 and the Top 10

Stephen Curry holds the NBA record for most three-pointers made in a regular season: 402 for the Golden State Warriors in 2015–16. The NBA identifies that season as his record campaign, and the all-time season leaderboard still places him first through 2025–26, ahead of James Harden’s 378 in 2018–19.

“Most threes” means made three-point field goals, usually labeled 3PM or 3P—not attempts or shooting percentage. It is a volume record: accuracy matters, but so do games played, minutes, offensive role and the opportunities a team’s pace creates.

Top 10 NBA seasons for three-pointers made

These are individual regular-season totals, excluding playoffs, Play-In games and preseason. A player can appear more than once because the ranking compares seasons, not distinct players.

Source: Basketball-Reference’s single-season three-point leaderboard, through the completed 2025–26 season; checked October 11, 2026.

Curry owns six of the top 10 seasons and remains the only player to reach 400. Harden’s second-place total is 24 makes short of the record.

The shots behind Curry’s 402

Curry’s record was not simply the result of taking more shots. In 2015–16, he made 402 of 886 three-point attempts in 79 games, shooting 45.4%, according to the NBA’s season totals.

Calculated from those totals, that is:

• 5.09 made threes per game: 402 ÷ 79.
• 11.22 three-point attempts per game: 886 ÷ 79.
• 1,206 points from threes: 402 × 3.

For comparison, Harden made his 378 threes on 1,028 attempts in 78 games, shooting 36.8% in 2018–19. Those figures appear in the NBA’s 2018–19 totals. Curry made 24 more threes while taking 142 fewer attempts.

That comparison illustrates why a makes leaderboard is not an accuracy leaderboard. A player can approach the record through greater shot volume, a higher conversion rate, or both. It also does not measure shot difficulty: assisted catch-and-shoot attempts and self-created pull-ups count equally as one make.

What would it take to break the record?

A player needs 403 made threes to pass Curry. Over 82 appearances, that requires an average of 4.91 makes per game. With only 70 appearances, the requirement rises to 5.76.

Using 40% shooting as a hypothetical benchmark, 403 ÷ 0.40 gives a workload of about 1,008 attempts—roughly 12.3 attempts per game over 82 games. This is a calculation, not a prediction: maintaining that accuracy at that volume is the challenge.

Games played can change the ranking even when a player’s nightly production improves. Curry made 337 threes in 63 games in 2020–21, or a calculated 5.35 per game—a higher rate than in his 402 season, but fewer total makes. Both seasons are documented in his season statistics. That gap reflects schedule length as well as availability: the 2020–21 season had 72 regular-season games per team, rather than the usual 82.

How to read the record across eras

Every top-10 season above occurred in 2015–16 or later. That concentration is a reason to consider how frequently players were encouraged to shoot threes, not just compare raw totals as if every era offered the same opportunities.

For a fairer comparison, read total makes alongside attempts, percentage, games played and makes per possession. Totals answer who produced the most; per-game and possession-adjusted figures help explain the rate of production. Neither alone settles who was the better shooter.

The history of the three-point line adds rules context to older comparisons, while our ranking of the best three-point shooters considers more than a single-season total.