Biggest Cats in the World, Ranked: The Tiger Is No. 1

Showdown · tiger, african lion, mountain lion, cheetah, snow leopard

The tiger is the biggest cat in the world. Large male Amur (Siberian) tigers weigh up to 300 kg (660 lb) and measure up to about 3 m (10 ft) long (Smithsonian's National Zoo). The lion is a clear second, with males at 150–250 kg (Smithsonian's National Zoo). After that comes the jaguar, the biggest cat in the Americas.

This is our weekly Thursday showdown: seven wild cats ranked honestly by adult weight, with the sources behind every number.

How we ranked them

Cats vary a lot by sex and by region. A male jaguar in Brazil's Pantanal is almost twice the weight of one in Honduras (Animal Diversity Web). So we ranked by typical adult male weight from zoo, park-service and university sources, and we left out single record animals and captive hybrids. Several ranges overlap, especially in the middle of the table, so a big cat from one species can outweigh a small one from the species above it.

The biggest wild cats, ranked by weight

Status sources: IUCN Red List assessments for the tiger (2022), lion (2023), jaguar (2017), cougar (2015), leopard (2023), cheetah (2015) and snow leopard (2017).

1. Tiger: the heavyweight

The tiger wins on both weight and length. Tigers from the far north grow biggest: the Smithsonian lists the Amur tiger as the largest form and the Sumatran tiger, from the far south of the range, as the smallest. Even a big Sumatran male, at up to 140 kg, is lighter than an average male lion. Tigers hunt mostly at night, stalking and ambushing large prey, and can eat as much as 34 kg (75 lb) of meat at a time (Smithsonian's National Zoo).

In Wilder, the Tiger is a Mythic card: Cost 6, Attack 7, Health 6, with Ambush, Camouflage and Relentless. It has the highest Attack of any cat in the game. Want the stripes and hunting story? Read our tiger deep dive.

2. Lion: heavy, but a step behind

Male lions weigh 150–250 kg and grow to about 3 m long, with a tail of 60–91 cm (Smithsonian's National Zoo). The heaviest wild male in the Animal Diversity Web account weighed 272 kg, from Mount Kenya (ADW). So a huge lion can outweigh a small tiger, but typical tigers are bigger.

The African Lion card (Mythic, Cost 5, 6/5) plays like a pride: Ambush, Herd and Pride Roar, which gives another friendly creature +1/+1. For how many lions remain in the wild, see this piece.

3. Jaguar: biggest cat of the Americas

Jaguars range from 68 to 136 kg in the Animal Diversity Web account. Size changes a lot from place to place: Pantanal males average 100 kg, while males in Honduras average 57 kg (ADW). Yellowstone's park biologists point out that the jaguar, which still turns up in Arizona and New Mexico, is larger than the cougar (NPS). The jaguar doesn't have a Wilder card yet, but it's on the schedule for one soon.

4. Cougar: the big cat that isn't a "big cat"

Adult male cougars in Yellowstone weigh 145–170 lb (66–77 kg) and females 85–120 lb (39–54 kg), with a total length of 2–2.3 m including the tail (NPS). That makes the cougar heavier than most leopards, even though it isn't in the roaring genus Panthera. (We explain who can roar in this piece.) The Mountain Lion card is Uncommon, Cost 5, 5/4, with Ambush and Feast. More on its many names in our mountain lion piece.

5. Leopard: small for a Panthera, strong for its size

Male leopards weigh 31–65 kg and females 17–58 kg (ADW). Leopards live everywhere from forests and savannas to deserts and mountains, and they have been recorded as high as 5,638 m on Mount Kilimanjaro (ADW). There's no Wilder leopard card yet. We've added it to our card request list.

6. Cheetah: built light for speed

An adult cheetah weighs 34–64 kg (75–140 lb). The Smithsonian notes that the leopard, which people often confuse it with, is a much heavier animal (Smithsonian's National Zoo). The cheetah traded bulk for speed: it averages 96–112 km/h at top speed but can hold that for only about 274 m. The Cheetah card (Rare, Cost 4) hits hard at Attack 5 but has only 3 Health, which is a fair summary of the real animal.

7. Snow leopard: smallest of the big cats

Adult snow leopards weigh 33–46 kg, with bodies 100–121 cm long and tails that can be nearly as long as their bodies (Snow Leopard Trust fact sheet). The Snow Leopard card is Rare, Cost 5, 5/4, with Ambush and Camouflage. Read why it can't roar in our snow leopard piece.

The short answer

Biggest cat: tiger. Second: lion. Biggest cat in the Americas: jaguar. In Wilder you can build a whole cat deck from this list today. The tiger and lion are the heavy hitters, the cheetah strikes early, and the cougar and snow leopard ambush from cover. Wilder is a free browser collectible card game, and you can play it free in your browser with no signup.

Photo credit

Hero photograph: Amur tiger in snow at Kolmården Wildlife Park, Sweden. Photo: Kolmården / Rickard Monéus, from the Parks and Resorts media bank, used with permission for editorial use. Cropped for the Field Journal hero.

Sources

• Smithsonian's National Zoo — Tiger
• Smithsonian's National Zoo — Lion
• Smithsonian's National Zoo — Cheetah
• Smithsonian's National Zoo — Clouded leopard
• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan) — Panthera onca
• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan) — Panthera leo
• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan) — Panthera pardus
• National Park Service, Yellowstone — Cougar
• Snow Leopard Trust — Snow leopard fact sheet
• IUCN Red List — Panthera tigris (2022)
• IUCN Red List — Panthera leo (2023)
• IUCN Red List — Panthera onca (2017)
• IUCN Red List — Puma concolor (2015)
• IUCN Red List — Panthera pardus (2023)
• IUCN Red List — Acinonyx jubatus (2015)
• IUCN Red List — Panthera uncia (2017)
• IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group — Revised taxonomy of the Felidae (Kitchener et al. 2017), tiger pages
• Guinness World Records — Largest living cat