The PLL Has Completed Eight Outdoor Seasons
See the complete 2019–2026 PLL season count, every champion, and why the shortened 2020 campaign counts while Sixes and MLL history stay separate.
The Premier Lacrosse League has completed eight men’s outdoor seasons through 2026. The total covers every season from the inaugural 2019 campaign through 2026, including the shortened 2020 season. It does not include the separate PLL Championship Series or seasons played by Major League Lacrosse.
Enter any year range within the completed PLL record; the counter returns the inclusive number of outdoor seasons.
Completed Outdoor Seasons
2019 through 2026 inclusive: 2026 − 2019 + 1 = 8.
| Included | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Outdoor PLL, 2019–2026 | 8 seasons |
| Shortened 2020 season | Included |
| PLL Championship Series | Excluded |
| Earlier MLL seasons | Excluded |
Source: PLL standings archive. The available completed outdoor range used here is 2019–2026.
Counting From 2019 Through 2026 Produces Eight Seasons
The PLL season count is inclusive: both the first year and the last year are part of the total. The calculation is therefore:
2026 − 2019 + 1 = 8 seasons
Subtracting 2019 from 2026 gives the seven year-to-year intervals between those dates. Adding one accounts for the 2019 season itself. Without that last step, the calculation would count the gaps between seasons rather than the seasons in the record.
The sequence is 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. There are no omitted years in that span. The PLL’s official standings archive lists those seasons, while the league’s statistical review identifies 2019 as its inaugural season (PLL).
This method also works for a shorter span of the completed record. A range from 2022 through 2025 contains four seasons because 2025 − 2022 + 1 = 4. A range consisting only of 2020 contains one season, not zero, because the starting and ending year refer to the same completed campaign.
The answer changes when the ending year changes. Through 2025, the same calculation would produce seven seasons. Through 2026, the completed total is eight. A future scheduled season should not be added to a count of completed seasons until it has been played and entered in the relevant record.
Every PLL Season And Champion From 2019 Through 2026
Each of the eight completed outdoor seasons ended with a recognized PLL champion. The year-by-year championship ledger is:
| Season | PLL Champion |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Whipsnakes |
| 2020 | Whipsnakes |
| 2021 | Chaos |
| 2022 | Waterdogs |
| 2023 | Archers |
| 2024 | Archers |
| 2025 | Atlas |
| 2026 | Waterdogs |
ESPN’s league history lists those eight champions from 2019 through 2026 (ESPN). Because there is one champion for each completed season in this ledger, the eight championship entries provide a second way to verify the eight-season total.
Five teams account for the eight titles shown. The Whipsnakes, Archers and Waterdogs each appear twice. Chaos and Atlas each appear once. Those totals add to eight championships: two plus two plus two plus one plus one.
The Whipsnakes won the first two championships, in 2019 and 2020. The Archers also won consecutive titles, in 2023 and 2024. The Waterdogs’ two titles were not consecutive: their first came in 2022 and their second in 2026.
The eighth season ended with Philadelphia defeating Denver 14–4 for the Waterdogs’ second PLL championship (PLL). That result closes the 2026 entry in the season ledger and establishes 2026 as the endpoint for this completed-season count.
A championship total and a unique-champion total answer different questions. There are eight season championships in the table but five different champion names. Counting only distinct teams would understate the number of seasons because repeat champions still won separate annual titles.
The Shortened 2020 Campaign Still Counts
The 2020 campaign counts as the PLL’s second season even though it was shortened. Season length does not determine whether an entry belongs in this total. The controlling facts are that the competition appears in the official standings archive and concluded with a league champion.
The Whipsnakes won that championship, giving the team titles in both 2019 and 2020. Removing 2020 would break the continuous annual sequence and would also leave one of the league’s recognized championships without a corresponding season in the count.
This distinction matters when someone informally counts only conventional touring seasons. That approach may describe differences in schedule format, but it does not match the league’s season ledger. For a record-book answer, 2020 remains one completed outdoor PLL season.
The shortened format also does not make 2020 a fraction of a season. The count measures completed season editions, not games played, weekends staged or schedule length. Each recognized yearly edition contributes one to the total. The supplied sources do not provide a game-count comparison for all eight seasons, so no claim about equal schedule lengths is necessary to establish the season count.
Starting with 2019 as season one, the sequence places 2020 second, 2021 third, 2022 fourth, 2023 fifth, 2024 sixth, 2025 seventh and 2026 eighth. Keeping 2020 in its recorded position makes the ordinal count agree with the calendar-year calculation.
The Championship Series Is A Separate Competition
The standalone PLL Championship Series should not be added to the eight outdoor seasons. The league debuted that separate Sixes-format competition in 2023, and its titles belong to a different format and statistical ledger (PLL).
The key distinction is not simply that both competitions carry PLL branding. The eight-season answer refers specifically to the men’s outdoor league season represented in the annual standings and championship history. The Championship Series is identified separately and uses Sixes rather than the outdoor-season format counted here.
Combining the two would mix competition editions rather than extend one continuous outdoor chronology. For example, the fact that the Championship Series debuted in 2023 does not create an additional 2023 outdoor season. The outdoor ledger still has one 2023 season, won by the Archers.
The same treatment applies to titles. A Championship Series title should not be inserted into the outdoor champions table, just as its competition edition should not be added to the outdoor-season total. Separate ledgers preserve the format attached to each result.
The supplied sources establish the Championship Series’ 2023 debut and its separate Sixes format, but the draft does not provide a complete year-by-year Championship Series title table. Its total is therefore not calculated here. That missing figure does not affect the supported answer of eight completed outdoor PLL seasons.
MLL Seasons Remain In MLL History
Major League Lacrosse seasons do not increase the PLL count. The PLL played its first season in 2019 and acquired and merged with MLL in 2020, but the MLL seasons played before that transaction remain part of a separate competition’s history.
An acquisition or merger can connect league histories without retroactively changing the identity of earlier seasons. The PLL’s inaugural designation for 2019 would be inconsistent with treating previous MLL campaigns as earlier PLL seasons. For the question “how many PLL seasons are there,” the count therefore begins with the PLL’s own inaugural year.
This is a matter of scope rather than an assertion that the MLL results ceased to exist. MLL standings, champions and records still belong in a historical lacrosse record. They simply remain labeled as MLL results rather than being renamed as PLL seasons.
A combined chronology can display both leagues while preserving those labels. For that view, see the MLL and PLL standings by season. A combined table may contain more seasons than the PLL-only ledger, but its larger total answers a broader question about professional outdoor lacrosse history.
The merger year also should not be double-counted. The 2020 PLL campaign is already one of the eight seasons. The corporate transaction involving MLL does not turn that single PLL season into two PLL seasons, nor does it convert all earlier MLL entries into PLL entries.
Different Counts Usually Reflect Different Definitions
An answer other than eight generally signals a different endpoint or competition scope. A count ending with 2025 has only seven completed outdoor seasons because it stops one year earlier. A count that omits the shortened 2020 campaign has excluded a season recognized in the standings and championship record. A larger count may have added Championship Series editions, MLL history or both.
These are separate ways the scope can shift:
- Ending year: The through-2026 count includes the 2026 season; an older through-2025 count does not.
- Season status: The official ledger includes the shortened 2020 campaign as a completed season.
- Competition format: The standalone Sixes Championship Series is not an outdoor PLL season.
- League identity: Earlier MLL seasons remain MLL history rather than becoming retroactive PLL seasons.
The championship table offers a practical check on the definition. If a proposed count has no place for the 2020 Whipsnakes title or the 2026 Waterdogs title, it is not counting the complete 2019–2026 PLL championship record. If it inserts Sixes champions or pre-PLL MLL champions, it has moved beyond the stated outdoor PLL scope.
The precise record-book answer is therefore eight completed men’s outdoor PLL seasons: 2019 through 2026 inclusive. That total includes the shortened 2020 season and excludes the separate Championship Series and MLL seasons.