"Major Leagues" redirects here. For other meanings of "Major League" or "Major Leagues" see Major League (disambiguation).

Major professional sports league, or simply major league, is the term used in North America to refer to the highest professional division in any team sport. The term "major league" was first used in 1921 in reference to Major League Baseball, the top level of professional American baseball, and for many years "major league" or "the majors" referred exclusively to baseball.

Major leagues are complemented by minor leagues, which are lower division and/or developmental leagues below the major league in the national sport-tier hierarchy; and amateur leagues, in which the athletes receive no salary. The designation as to whether a league is a major or minor league is made by the national or international governing body for that sport, not by the popular perception of that sport (e.g., TV ratings or number of articles in the daily newspaper). In any country or region, the top major leagues generally will have the best athletes, the largest-capacity stadiums, the largest and most active fan bases, the most lucrative television contracts, and, therefore, the largest revenues and player salaries.

In North America, the top major leagues are generally accepted to be: Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League. Prominent major leagues outside the "Big Four" are mainly Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Canadian Football League (CFL), while the Arena Football League (AFL), the National Lacrosse League (NLL), Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), and the WNBA deserve mention.

Unlike similar sports leagues around the world (with Australian leagues as a notable exception), those in the United States and Canada do not use the system of promotion and relegation. Rather, their structures are characterized by the use of franchises and closed membership; the same teams compete in the leagues each year.

Note that in North America, the term "major league" is usually limited to team sports, even though individual-driven spectator sports such as golf, tennis and auto racing are also very popular, such as with the PGA, ATP, WTA, IndyCar, and NASCAR.