How many times has Goku died?

You could say Goku dying is the best thing that ever happened to him. Every time he dies, he makes the most of it and gets himself a new trainer, and learns some incredible new technique. But just how many times has Goku died?

Goku has officially died 2 times. However, there are different universe/timeline Goku’s that have died as well. We know of 2 other times Goku’s have died, bringing Goku’s known deaths up to 4.

Goku’s 1st Death – Special Beam Cannon from Piccolo

Typically finding out you have a long lost brother is a heartwarming magical moment, like when Homer Simpson first met his brother Herbert.

But when Goku first met Raditz things couldn’t have gone worse with the bad-blood ending in a fight to the death.

Unfortunately, the only way to save Earth was Goku holding Raditz while Piccolo used his ultrapowerful Special Beam Cannon to kill them both, Goku being the collateral damage.

Goku managed to live through the whole of the Dragon Ball series, but in the first Saga of Dragon Ball Z, he sadly dies.

Goku’s 2nd Death – Exploding Cell

Death is rarely the end in Dragon Ball, and it wasn’t long before the gang wished Goku back with the Dragon Balls.

But then along came Cell, another enemy who was too powerful for Goku to beat. With the Earth’s very existence at stake, we thought Goku was a toast until Gohan turned Super Saiyan 2.

But Chi Chi clearly never taught Gohan not to play with his food, as Gohan wouldn’t stop messing with Cell.

This resulted in Cell self-destructing and Goku teleporting both him and Cell to King Kai’s planet. Cell’s exploding body then killed Goku, King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory.

Unlimited Timelines – Unlimited Deaths

Although we know about 2 other times Goku has died, due to the infinite number of timelines established in Z, there must have been an unlimited amount of Goku’s that die. So that’s why we don’t personally count these other deaths as Goku dying because they are not the same person. We only care about how much our beloved Goku has died. But here are two other times other Gokus have died…

Future Trunk’s Goku’s Death – Heart Virus

So that’s as far as our Goku’s death goes. However, with time travel established in the Future Trunks arc, we also know of another Goku.

In Future Trunk’s timeline, the Androids came and killed all of the Z fighters apart from Trunks and Yajirobe.

But future Goku died long before that of a heart virus. Luckily future trunks gave our Goku the medicine, so he didn’t suffer the same fate as his counterpart.

Universe 10 Goku’s Death – Goku Black

When Goku Black turned up on the scene during Dragon Ball Super, there was a massive amount of intrigue from fans as to who the hell he was.

It was the biggest mystery since “Who shot JR” if you are from the US, or “Who shot Phil Mitchel” if you are from the UK.

It turned out Zamazsu used the Super Dragon Balls to body swap with his universes Goku. He then proceeded to kill the mind of Goku in the Zamasu body.

However, the body wouldn’t die later when Zeno erased the universe from existence after fused Zamasu exploded into the sky.

For as many fights and near-death experiences Goku had, like when he hired Hit to hit him, Goku has only died twice. But in the Dragon Ball Universe, after your body dies, your spirit needs to pass before you are entirely dead. So let’s hope this never happens to our favourite scruffy haired Saiyan. If you like reading about death why not check out how many times Krillin has died?