Get the per-game statistical leaders for a single college football game – one row per leader within each statistical category, both teams combined.
Value
A data frame with one row per leader-in-category:
| col_name | types | description |
| game_id | character | ESPN game identifier. |
| category_name | character | Leader-category key (e.g. passingLeader). |
| category_display_name | character | Human-readable leader-category name. |
| category_short_display_name | character | Short human-readable leader-category name. |
| category_abbreviation | character | Leader-category abbreviation. |
| leader_rank | integer | Rank of the athlete within the category (1 = top). |
| athlete_id | character | ESPN athlete id (parsed from athlete_ref). |
| team_id | character | ESPN team id of the athlete's team (parsed from team_ref). |
| team_name | character | Team nickname; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_abbreviation | character | Team abbreviation; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_location | character | Team location / school name; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_display_name | character | Full team display name; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_short_display_name | character | Short team display name; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_nickname | character | Team nickname label; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_color | character | Primary team color; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_alternate_color | character | Alternate team color; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_logo_href | character | Default team logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| team_logo_dark_href | character | Dark-variant team logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| display_value | character | Display-formatted stat line for the leader. |
| value | numeric | Numeric leading-stat value. |
| athlete_ref | character | $ref URL to the athlete resource. |
| team_ref | character | $ref URL to the team resource. |
| statistics_ref | character | $ref URL to the athlete's game-statistics resource. |
Details
Wraps the ESPN core-v2 endpoint
events/{game_id}/competitions/{game_id}/leaders. The competition id
always equals the game id. Returns one row per leader within each
leader category (passing, rushing, receiving, ...). ESPN publishes
roughly 22 categories per game; each category lists a small number of
leading athletes. This is the game-wide leaders resource – distinct from
espn_cfb_game_team_leaders(), which returns the leaders for a single
competitor (team).
When team_detail = TRUE (the default) the ESPN team catalog
(espn_cfb_teams()) is fetched once and friendly team fields are joined
in next to the team_id column – team_name, team_abbreviation,
team_location, team_display_name, team_short_display_name,
team_nickname, team_color, team_alternate_color,
team_logo_href, and team_logo_dark_href, inserted immediately after
team_id.
A catalog failure degrades to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. Set
team_detail = FALSE to skip the catalog fetch and the join.
See also
Other ESPN CFB Functions:
espn_cfb_award(),
espn_cfb_awards(),
espn_cfb_clear_cache(),
espn_cfb_coach(),
espn_cfb_coach_record(),
espn_cfb_coaches(),
espn_cfb_franchise(),
espn_cfb_franchises(),
espn_cfb_futures(),
espn_cfb_game_broadcasts(),
espn_cfb_game_drive_plays(),
espn_cfb_game_drives(),
espn_cfb_game_odds(),
espn_cfb_game_pbp(),
espn_cfb_game_play(),
espn_cfb_game_player_box(),
espn_cfb_game_player_statistics(),
espn_cfb_game_powerindex(),
espn_cfb_game_predictor(),
espn_cfb_game_probabilities(),
espn_cfb_game_situation(),
espn_cfb_game_status(),
espn_cfb_game_team_leaders(),
espn_cfb_game_team_linescores(),
espn_cfb_game_team_records(),
espn_cfb_game_team_roster(),
espn_cfb_game_team_statistics(),
espn_cfb_game_teams(),
espn_cfb_groups(),
espn_cfb_pbp_v2(),
espn_cfb_player(),
espn_cfb_player_career_stats(),
espn_cfb_player_eventlog(),
espn_cfb_player_gamelog(),
espn_cfb_player_overview(),
espn_cfb_player_seasons(),
espn_cfb_player_splits(),
espn_cfb_player_stats_v3(),
espn_cfb_players(),
espn_cfb_position(),
espn_cfb_positions(),
espn_cfb_powerindex(),
espn_cfb_qbr(),
espn_cfb_rankings(),
espn_cfb_recruits(),
espn_cfb_season_info(),
espn_cfb_season_types(),
espn_cfb_season_weeks(),
espn_cfb_seasons(),
espn_cfb_standings(),
espn_cfb_team(),
espn_cfb_team_ats(),
espn_cfb_team_awards(),
espn_cfb_team_coaches(),
espn_cfb_team_events(),
espn_cfb_team_leaders(),
espn_cfb_team_powerindex(),
espn_cfb_team_ranks(),
espn_cfb_team_record(),
espn_cfb_team_roster(),
espn_cfb_team_schedule(),
espn_cfb_teams(),
espn_cfb_unnest_plays(),
espn_cfb_venue(),
espn_cfb_venues(),
espn_cfb_week_rankings()
Examples
# \donttest{
try(espn_cfb_game_leaders(game_id = 401628339))
#> ── Game leaders data from ESPN ─────────────────────────────── cfbfastR 2.3.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-09 07:55:57 UTC
#> # A tibble: 162 × 23
#> game_id category_name category_display_name category_short_display_name
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 401628339 passingLeader Passing Leader PASS
#> 2 401628339 passingLeader Passing Leader PASS
#> 3 401628339 passingLeader Passing Leader PASS
#> 4 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 5 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 6 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 7 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 8 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 9 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 10 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> # ℹ 152 more rows
#> # ℹ 19 more variables: category_abbreviation <chr>, leader_rank <int>,
#> # athlete_id <chr>, team_id <chr>, team_name <chr>, team_abbreviation <chr>,
#> # team_location <chr>, team_display_name <chr>,
#> # team_short_display_name <chr>, team_nickname <chr>, team_color <chr>,
#> # team_alternate_color <chr>, team_logo_href <chr>,
#> # team_logo_dark_href <chr>, display_value <chr>, value <dbl>, …
try(espn_cfb_game_leaders(game_id = 401628339, team_detail = FALSE))
#> ── Game leaders data from ESPN ─────────────────────────────── cfbfastR 2.3.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-09 07:55:57 UTC
#> # A tibble: 162 × 13
#> game_id category_name category_display_name category_short_display_name
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 401628339 passingLeader Passing Leader PASS
#> 2 401628339 passingLeader Passing Leader PASS
#> 3 401628339 passingLeader Passing Leader PASS
#> 4 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 5 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 6 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 7 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 8 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 9 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> 10 401628339 rushingLeader Rushing Leader RUSH
#> # ℹ 152 more rows
#> # ℹ 9 more variables: category_abbreviation <chr>, leader_rank <int>,
#> # athlete_id <chr>, team_id <chr>, display_value <chr>, value <dbl>,
#> # athlete_ref <chr>, team_ref <chr>, statistics_ref <chr>
# }