A no-hitter means the opposing team never got a hit — but they could still reach base by walk, error, hit-by-pitch, or catcher’s interference. A perfect game is stricter: no hits, no walks, no errors, no hit batters, nobody reaching base by any means, for all 27 outs (or however long the game runs). In short, every perfect game is automatically a no-hitter, but most no-hitters are not perfect games.
The basic definitions, side by side
Both feats live in the same neighborhood of pitching dominance, which is why fans sometimes use the terms loosely. But officially, they’re measured against different standards. A no-hitter only tracks hits allowed — a pitcher (or a bullpen combining on it) can walk several batters, hit someone with a pitch, or benefit from a defense that boots a ball, and it’s still a no-hitter as long as no hit crosses the line. A perfect game demands total flawlessness on the bases: 27 batters up, 27 batters down, with nothing — not a walk, not an error, not a hit-by-pitch — letting anyone reach.
That distinction matters for the record book and for how each game is remembered. A no-hitter can be tense and sloppy at the same time, full of full counts and defensive scrambles. A perfect game, by definition, can’t have a single blemish anywhere in the box score.
Why every perfect game is a no-hitter, but not the reverse
Think of it as two circles, one inside the other. The no-hitter circle is the larger one — it only cares about hits. The perfect-game circle sits entirely inside it, adding extra conditions about baserunners of any kind. A pitcher can’t throw a perfect game without also throwing a no-hitter, because if nobody ever reaches base, nobody ever got a hit either. But a pitcher absolutely can throw a no-hitter without it being perfect — a leadoff walk in the first inning, an error by the shortstop in the sixth, or a hit batter in the ninth will end the perfect-game bid instantly while leaving the no-hitter fully intact.
This is also why perfect games are so much rarer. Over nine innings, a defense has to be flawless behind the pitcher, the umpire’s version of the strike zone has to cooperate on borderline pitches, and the pitcher can’t have a single lapse in command. If you want a refresher on how that zone is actually defined and enforced, it’s worth reading through how the strike zone actually works, since a few close calls at the edges of the plate can be the difference between a perfect game and a one-walk no-hitter.
Just how rare are these feats?
No-hitters, while still a big deal, happen with some regularity — most seasons see at least one, and some seasons see several, sometimes clustered together in ways that surprise even longtime fans. Perfect games are a different order of rarity. Officially recognized perfect games in MLB’s modern history number only a little over twenty, spanning well over a century of play. That works out to something rarer than a typical Hall of Fame induction class in most years.
Part of what makes perfect games so scarce is that they require cooperation from variables the pitcher doesn’t fully control — a diving stop at shortstop, a backhand grab at first, an umpire’s borderline call going his way just once. A no-hitter forgives a shaky defensive play as long as it doesn’t put a ball in play that becomes a hit; a perfect game does not.
A quick note on history
No-hitters and perfect games both stretch back to baseball’s earliest professional decades, long before night games, radar guns, or modern bullpen usage. Some of the sport’s most famous pitching performances came during stretches when offense across the league was already depressed — conditions covered in more detail in our look at the Dead Ball Era, when low-scoring games were the norm rather than the exception. That context matters: a no-hitter thrown when offenses across the board were struggling reads differently than one thrown in a high-scoring era.
One of the most famous perfect games in baseball history happened on the sport’s biggest stage — Don Larsen’s perfect game for the New York Yankees in a World Series game in 1956 remains the only perfect game ever thrown in postseason play, a fact that alone tells you how much luck and command have to align. For more on legendary pitching feats and where they rank among the game’s greatest achievements, the MLB Records & Legends hub is a good place to keep exploring.
The heartbreak factor: near-misses that don’t count
Baseball history is full of pitchers who were perfect for extraordinarily long stretches only to lose the bid on a single play late in the game — sometimes in extra innings. One of the most famous examples involved a pitcher who retired batter after batter without blemish deep into a game that went well past the usual nine innings, only for the perfect game (and eventually the no-hitter itself) to slip away in a later inning. Under the sport’s rules, if perfection is broken at any point, the game is scored as whatever it actually was — a near-miss doesn’t get partial credit as an official perfect game or no-hitter once a runner reaches base or a hit falls in.
This is also where scoring rules get specific enough to matter. An error charged to a fielder, rather than a hit charged to the batter, keeps a no-hitter alive but still ends any shot at perfection. That’s a good example of how the game’s official scoring decisions — the kind explained in depth across our Rules Explained section — can directly shape baseball history, sometimes turning what looks like a clean single into an error that saves a no-hit bid.
Combined no-hitters and other wrinkles
Modern bullpen usage has added a new category worth knowing: combined no-hitters, where multiple pitchers from the same team each throw scoreless, hitless innings and the no-hitter is credited as a team effort rather than to one starter who went the distance. These are still officially recognized as no-hitters under current rules, though they can’t be perfect games unless every reliever involved also avoids walks, hit batters, and defensive errors — a tall order across several different arms in one game.
There’s also a quirk fans sometimes run into with the infield fly rule and other defensive-positioning calls that can affect how an inning unfolds during a no-hit bid; if you want a refresher on one of the trickier rules that occasionally comes up in high-leverage innings, our explainer on the infield fly rule covers it plainly. And if you’re curious how these single-game feats connect to broader shifts in the sport, our History & Eras hub traces how pitching, scoring, and defense have changed across baseball’s different periods.
Frequently asked questions about no-hitters and perfect games
Is a perfect game automatically a no-hitter?
Yes. A perfect game requires that no batter reach base at all, which means no hits were allowed either. Every officially recognized perfect game in MLB history is also counted as a no-hitter, since perfection is simply a stricter, more demanding version of the same feat.
Can you have a no-hitter with a walk?
Yes, absolutely. A no-hitter only requires that no hit be allowed; walks, hit batters, and even defensive errors that let a runner reach base do not break a no-hitter, though any one of them immediately rules out a perfect game for that pitcher.
How many perfect games have there been in MLB history?
Officially recognized perfect games number only a little over twenty across MLB’s entire modern history, making them far rarer than no-hitters, which have happened many dozens of times more often across the same span of seasons.
Does an error count against a perfect game?
Yes. If a fielder’s error allows a batter to reach base, the pitcher’s perfect game is over immediately, even though the no-hitter can still stand since the batter didn’t record an actual hit on the play.
Has a perfect game ever happened in the World Series?
Yes, exactly once. Don Larsen threw a perfect game for the New York Yankees during a World Series game in 1956, and it remains the only perfect game ever thrown in postseason history, which is part of why it’s remembered as one of baseball’s signature moments.