The most games played in a professional ice hockey career is 2421 games by Gordon `Gordie’ Howe (Canada) (b. March 31, 1928) from 1946 to 1980.

The total is made up of 1767 regular season games and 157 play-off games, over a record 26 seasons, from 1946 to 1971 for the Detroit Red Wings and in 1979/80 for the Hartford Whalers in the NHL, 419 regular season games and 78 play-off games for the Houston Aeros from 1973-1977 and for the New England Whalers from 1977 to 1979, in the World Hockey Association (WHA),