The men's parallel bars competition was an inaugural event at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.^[1][2] It has been held in every year since its inception.

The first event was in 1903, and followed every other year until and including 1913. Competitions were not held during World War I, ultimately returning in 1922, and was then held every fourth year, until and including 1942. Competitions resumed after World War II, starting in 1950. It continued every fourth even year until and including 1978. The next event was held a year later, when the schedule was switched to an every-odd year until and including 1991. It then became an annual event, until and including 1997. It was next held in 1999. During the 21st century, the World Championships became an annual event held each non-Summer Olympic year.

Three medals are awarded: gold for first place, silver for second place, and bronze for third place. Tie breakers have not been used in every year. In the event of a tie between two gymnasts, both names are listed, and the following position (second for a tie for first, third for a tie for second) is left empty because a medal was not awarded for that position.

Bold numbers in brackets denotes record number of victories.

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1903	Antwerp	François Hentges Joseph Martinez	—	André Bordang Eugène Dua
1905	Bordeaux	Marcel Lalu Joseph Martinez	—	Pierre Payssé
1907	Prague	Joseph Lux	Josef Čada	František Erben Louis Ségura
1909	Luxembourg	Joseph Martinez (3)	Josef Čada Auguste Castille Marco Torrès	—
1911	Turin	Giorgio Zampori	Dominique Follacci	Antoine Costa Jules Labéeu Jules Lecoutre Paolo Salvi Ferdinand Steiner Stane Vidmar
1913	Paris	Guido Boni Giorgio Zampori	—	Pierre Hentges
1915–1917	Not held due to World War I
1922	Ljubljana	Leon Štukelj	Stane Derganc Stanislav Indruch Miroslav Klinger Vladimir Simončič Stane Vidmar	—
1926	Lyon	Ladislav Vácha	Jan Gajdoš	Leon Štukelj
1930	Luxembourg	Josip Primožič	Alfred Krauss	Ladislav Vácha
1934	Budapest	Eugen Mack	Josef Walter	Walter Bach
1938	Prague	Michael Reusch	Alois Hudec	Josip Primožič
1942	Not held due to World War II
1950	Basel	Hans Eugster	Olavi Rove	Raymond Dot
1954	Rome	Viktor Chukarin	Josef Stalder	Helmut Bantz Hans Eugster Masao Takemoto
1958	Moscow	Boris Shakhlin	Takashi Ono	Pavel Stolbov
1962	Prague	Miroslav Cerar	Boris Shakhlin	Yukio Endō
1966	Dortmund	Sergey Diomidov	Mikhail Voronin	Miroslav Cerar
1970	Ljubljana	Akinori Nakayama	Eizō Kenmotsu Mikhail Voronin	—
1974	Varna	Eizō Kenmotsu	Nikolai Andrianov	Vladimir Marchenko
1978	Strasbourg	Eizō Kenmotsu	Nikolai Andrianov Hiroshi Kajiyama	—
1979	Fort Worth	Bart Conner	Kurt Thomas Aleksandr Tkachyov	—
1981	Moscow	Alexander Dityatin Kōji Gushiken	—	Nobuyuki Kajitani
1983	Budapest	Vladimir Artemov Lou Yun	—	Kōji Sotomura Tong Fei
1985	Montreal	Sylvio Kroll Valentin Mogilny	—	Kōji Gushiken
1987	Rotterdam	Vladimir Artemov	Dmitry Bilozerchev	Sven Tippelt
1989	Stuttgart	Vladimir Artemov (3) Li Jing	—	Andreas Wecker
1991	Indianapolis	Li Jing	Ihor Korobchynskyi	Guo Linyao
1992	Paris	Li Jing (3) Aleksey Voropayev	—	Valery Belenky
1993	Birmingham	Vitaly Scherbo	Ihor Korobchynskyi	Valery Belenky (UNA) [d]
1994	Brisbane	Huang Liping	Rustam Sharipov	Alexei Nemov
1995	Sabae	Vitaly Scherbo	Huang Liping	Hikaru Tanaka
1996	San Juan	Rustam Sharipov	Alexei Nemov Vitaly Scherbo	—
1997	Lausanne	Zhang Jinjing	Li Xiaopeng	Naoya Tsukahara
1999	Tianjin	Lee Joo-hyung	Alexei Bondarenko Naoya Tsukahara	—
2001	Ghent	Sean Townsend	Erick López	Ivan Ivankov
2002	Debrecen	Li Xiaopeng	Mitja Petkovšek	Alexei Sinkevich
2003	Anaheim	Li Xiaopeng	Huang Xu Alexei Nemov	—
2005	Melbourne	Mitja Petkovšek	Li Xiaopeng	Yann Cucherat
2006	Aarhus	Yang Wei	Hiroyuki Tomita Yoo Won-chul	—
2007	Stuttgart	Kim Dae-eun Mitja Petkovšek	—	Anton Fokin
2009	London	Wang Guanyin	Feng Zhe	Kazuhito Tanaka
2010	Rotterdam	Feng Zhe	Teng Haibin	Kōhei Uchimura
2011	Tokyo	Danell Leyva	Vasileios Tsolakidis Zhang Chenglong	—
2013	Antwerp	Lin Chaopan Kōhei Uchimura	—	John Orozco
2014	Nanning	Oleg Verniaiev	Danell Leyva	Ryōhei Katō
2015	Glasgow	You Hao	Oleg Verniaiev	Deng Shudi Oleg Stepko
2017	Montreal	Zou Jingyuan	Oleg Verniaiev	David Belyavskiy
2018	Doha	Zou Jingyuan	Oleg Verniaiev	Artur Dalaloyan
2019	Stuttgart	Joe Fraser	Ahmet Önder	Kazuma Kaya
2021	Kitakyushu	Hu Xuwei	Carlos Yulo	Shi Cong
2022	Liverpool	Zou Jingyuan (3)	Lukas Dauser	Carlos Yulo
2023	Antwerp	Lukas Dauser	Shi Cong	Kaito Sugimoto

Last updated after the 2023 World Championships.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	17	8	4	29
2	Soviet Union	8	8	2	18
3	Japan	5	5	12	22
4	France	5	4	7	16
5	Yugoslavia	3	3	3	9
6	Switzerland	3	2	2	7
7	United States	3	2	1	6
8	Italy	3	0	1	4
9	Ukraine	2	5	0	7
10	Belarus	2	1	2	5
11	Slovenia	2	1	0	3
	South Korea	2	1	0	3
13	Czechoslovakia	1	4	1	6
14	Germany	1	1	0	2
15	East Germany	1	0	2	3
	Luxembourg	1	0	2	3
17	CIS [c]	1	0	1	2
18	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
19	Russia	0	3	3	6
20	Bohemia [a]	0	2	2	4
21	Philippines	0	1	1	2
22	Cuba	0	1	0	1
	Finland	0	1	0	1
	Greece	0	1	0	1
	Turkey	0	1	0	1
26	Austria-Hungary [b]	0	0	1	1
	Azerbaijan	0	0	1	1
	Belgium	0	0	1	1
	Uzbekistan	0	0	1	1
	West Germany	0	0	1	1
–	Unattached athlete [d]	0	0	1	1
Totals (30 entries)		61	55	52	168

Notes

• ^[a] Official FIG documents credit medals earned by athletes from Bohemia as medals for Czechoslovakia.
• ^[b] Official FIG documents credit medals earned by athletes from Austria-Hungary as medals for Yugoslavia.
• ^[c] Official FIG documents credit medals earned by athletes from former Soviet Union at the 1992 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Paris, France, as medals for CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).
• ^[d] At the 1993 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham, Great Britain, Azerbaijani-born athlete Valery Belenky earned a bronze medal competing as an unattached athlete (UNA) because Azerbaijan did not have a gymnastics federation for him to compete. Later, official FIG documents credit his medal as a medal for Germany.

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Years	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Vladimir Artemov	Soviet Union	1983–1989	3	0	0	3
	Li Jing	China	1989–1992	3	0	0	3
	Joseph Martinez	France	1903–1909	3	0	0	3
	Zou Jingyuan	China	2017–2022	3	0	0	3
5	Li Xiaopeng	China	1997–2005	2	2	0	4
6	Eizō Kenmotsu	Japan	1970–1978	2	1	0	3
	Mitja Petkovšek	Slovenia	2002–2007	2	1	0	3
	Vitaly Scherbo	Belarus	1993–1996	2	1	0	3
9	Giorgio Zampori	Italy	1911–1913	2	0	0	2
10	Oleg Verniaiev	Ukraine	2014–2018	1	3	0	4
11	Lukas Dauser	Germany	2022–2023	1	1	0	2
	Feng Zhe	China	2009–2010	1	1	0	2
	Huang Liping	China	1994–1995	1	1	0	2
	Danell Leyva	United States	2011–2014	1	1	0	2
	Boris Shakhlin	Soviet Union	1958–1962	1	1	0	2
	Rustam Sharipov	Ukraine	1994–1996	1	1	0	2
17	Miroslav Cerar	Yugoslavia	1962–1966	1	0	1	2
	Hans Eugster	Switzerland	1950–1954	1	0	1	2
	Kōji Gushiken	Japan	1981–1985	1	0	1	2
	Josip Primožič	Yugoslavia	1930–1938	1	0	1	2
	Leon Štukelj	Yugoslavia	1922–1926	1	0	1	2
	Kōhei Uchimura	Japan	2010–2013	1	0	1	2
	Ladislav Vácha	Czechoslovakia	1926–1930	1	0	1	2
24	Alexei Nemov	Russia	1994–2003	0	2	1	3
25	Nikolai Andrianov	Soviet Union	1974–1978	0	2	0	2
	Josef Čada	Bohemia	1907–1909	0	2	0	2
	Ihor Korobchynskyi	Soviet Union  Ukraine	1991–1993	0	2	0	2
	Mikhail Voronin	Soviet Union	1966–1970	0	2	0	2
29	Shi Cong	China	2021–2023	0	1	1	2
	Naoya Tsukahara	Japan	1997–1999	0	1	1	2
	Stane Vidmar	Austria-Hungary  Yugoslavia	1911–1922	0	1	1	2
	Carlos Yulo	Philippines	2021–2022	0	1	1	2
33	Valery Belenky	CIS Unattached athlete [d]	1992–1993	0	0	2	2