If you’re a DC fan, you know who the Flash is. For those who don’t, he’s the world’s fastest man. And with mind-boggling speed, the Flash can move as if time is standing still and even turn back time!
Yet, despite these incredible superpowers, everyone just has one question: How fast is the Flash? The Flash has appeared in several different forms of media, from comic books to television shows to movies. So how has his speed differed over all of these platforms, and is anyone, or anything, faster than him?
Arrowverse’s Flash Speed from Season 1 to Season 4
Season One
After waking up from a coma at STAR Labs, the main character, Barry Allen (played by Grant Gustin) realizes he can move at an astounding speed. Here, fans can witness Barry running over 700 mph, which is just under the speed of sound.
In the first season, fans see Barry stopping a tornado from forming and even breaking the sound barrier when developing a supersonic punch. To defeat Tony Woodward, he managed to run around 873 mph, and even managed to travel through time by running so fast, clocking at over 1500 mph.
Season Two
In 2015, The Flash came back to fans as they watched Barry learn more about his powers and master some tricks to help him throughout his adventures. From throwing lightning to traveling between alternate realities of the Arrowverse, Barry started to see his true potential.
During his battle with against Eliza Harmon, or Trajectory, Barry had to reach speeds of 2,532 mph. This is also where we see his first encounter with Supergirl. During their interaction, Flash was able to get to speeds 10,100mph.
Season Three
By season three, it’s obvious that Barry is still on his way up. Especially when we’re introducted to Savitar, a god-like speedster with a hatred for Barry, and is later uncovered to be a clone of future Barry. The clone was incredibly fast, and Barry could barely detect him.
In order to defeat this foe, Barry had to reach 2,302 mph. While not as fast as his battle with Supergirl, it’s still a tremendous speed that is incredibly impressive.
Season Four
After spending time in the Speed Force, Barry returns with some new tricks. With a heightened sense of awareness and being able to have almost perfect reflexes, Barry is stronger than ever before.
During this season, Barry meets Dave Ratchet, a man in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Barry sees this as an opportunity to clear his conscience in a way and helps him escape. In order to do this though, he had to run a hefty 120 million miles per hour!
Arrowverse’s Flash Speed from Season 5 to Season 9
Season Five
Season five didn’t break any records, as this season focused mostly on the introduction of Nora West-Allen, the mysterious daughter of Barry Allen and Iris West. She is also a speedster and her appearance creates quite the stir.
This season focuses on the daughter and Barry’s connection with the Speed Force. With all of that being said, the Flash only ran a speed of 8.3 million miles per hour.
Season Six
Similar to season five, season six doesn’t provide any record breaking numbers, only 8.3 million miles per hour.
While this season has beautiful visuals and stunning stories, there’s nothing new about Barry’s powers to mention.
Season Seven
Another season where they focused on something a bit different, season 7 focuses more on Barry’s heart than his speed. They also spend time talking about Barry’s new power of “speed-thinking”, where he can run calculations a lot faster, faster than a quantum computer.
And even though there is some mention that Barry is faster than ever before, there are no numbers indicating how fast he actually is.
Season Eight
Season eight starts out mentioning how much Barry has improved and showcases this by preventing any harm as two bullet trains were on a collision course. Within twelve seconds, the trains were evacuated and everyone was safe.
Also in the season, Barry is set to travel back in time, and in doing so, he manages to run 15,000 miles per hour without any assistance of the Speed Force.
Season Nine
The last season of The Flash started with a bang as Barry was up against another speedster, Red Death.
While again there is no metric for how fast The Flash has gone as of yet, he surely has to reach some of his highest speeds to defeat this next foe.
How Fast is the Flash in the Movie?
June 16, 2023, was the release of The Flash movie starring Ezra Miller as Barry Allen. In the film, Barry is struck by a bolt of lightning and is gifted extraordinary power, the Speed Force. When he uses this opportunity to travel back in time to save his mother, he creates a world without heroes and General Zod has returned.
To defeat him, his only hope is with a retired Batman, another Barry and an imprisoned kryptonian. The speeds that he reaches to ensure victory reaches 17,500 miles per hour, which doesn’t come close to the show’s numbers.
How Fast Is The Flash? (According To Math)
The speed of the Flash depends on the writer’s imagination and his writing, but it is considerably faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1).
In the comic Justice League of America, Ep #89, when a fictional nuclear bomb was set off in Korea, he saved 532,000 people. It took the Flash 0.00001 microseconds to save every person, and the Flash traveled 70 miles each time he carried someone to simplify this.
In fact, even if he carried two people on specific rounds, we can say that he traveled 354,667 times, at 0.00001 microseconds. To accomplish this mission, the Flash would have traveled at 2.5 quintillion Miles Per Second.
The Flash Comparison With Real and Fiction World
“The Flash” has been attributed to three characters. Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, and Wally West. Among these, Wally West is the fastest Flash ever seen in DC World.
The Flash Vs. The Real World Fastest Man Alive
Usain Bolt crossed 44.72 km/h in the Tokyo Olympics and was the fastest man alive. However, now it’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs thanks to his 100 sprint at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Of course, with the Flash’s speed, there’s no question that he is the fastest compared to these men.
World’s Fastest Jet Vs. The Flash
The consensus and most agreed upon number that the Flash can run is 17,500 miles per hour.
Which is considerably faster than the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet humans have ever produced with a speed of 3,500 kph or (2,100 mph).
The Flash Vs. Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon’s speed in hyperspace is impressive, and it travels at an intergalactic speed of 1,050 km/h. In contrast, the Flash outruns it by a big margin because its top speed is rated at 17 Mach.
Superman Vs. The Flash
In theory, the Flash can easily beat Superman by a considerable margin. The fact is that the Flash is faster than light speed and much faster than Superman.
Thanks to the Speed Force, the Flash has quite an advantage on most of the superheroes. Thanks to the fact that he can manipulate time and phase through objects, he can beat Superman easily.
Godspeed Vs. The Flash
Even though the Flash is a superhero and protagonist, thus enforcing the law that they should be the strongest, Godspeed has a connection to the Speed Force and can run up to 10 times the speed of light, meaning he can beat the Flash in terms of speed.
However, this can easily change depending on if we’ve actually seen the Flash’s full potential, and there may be more media coming up that could contradict this.