📊 Win Percentage & Games Back Calculator
Enter your team's wins and losses, plus the league leader's record, to calculate winning percentage and games back.
Two standings numbers
Winning percentage is your share of the games you have played. Games back averages the two gaps - the wins you are short and the losses you carry extra:
Win% = W / (W + L)
GB = ((leaderW - W) + (L - leaderL)) / 2At 80-60 against a leader at 90-50 the percentage is 80 / 140 = 57.1%, and games back is ((90 - 80) + (60 - 50)) / 2 = 10.0. The halving is not arbitrary: one game in the standings moves two numbers, since beating the leader head to head adds a win to your column and a loss to theirs. Catching up ten games takes twenty results going your way, not ten.
Reading the result
- Half games are real. When the two teams have played a different number of games the answer lands on a .5. A team at 80-60 chasing a leader at 90-49 is 10.5 back, and that half disappears the moment the leader plays their game in hand.
- Negative means you are ahead. Put the second-place record in the leader boxes and the figure comes back as your lead over them.
- Percentage is shown to one decimal. Baseball standings print the same figure as .571 instead of 57.1%; it is the same number.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate games back in baseball?
Add the difference in wins to the difference in losses and halve it. Five wins short and three losses ahead is (5 + 3) / 2, or 4 games back.
What does half a game back mean?
The two teams have played an unequal number of games. It happens after a rainout or a scheduling quirk, and it resolves itself once the team with the game in hand plays it.
How do you work out winning percentage?
Divide wins by total games played, not by wins plus losses plus scheduled games. A 45-35 team has played 80, so 45 / 80 = .563.