Descended from Cincinnati's pioneering professional clubs of the 1860s and 1870s, the modern franchise was a charter member of the American Association in 1882, winning that league's pennant in its first season, before joining the National League in 1890. The club spent much of the following three decades as a middling team, finally breaking through with a controversial 1919 World Series title that was overshadowed by the Chicago White Sox 'Black Sox' gambling scandal. A modernization push in the 1930s under owner Powel Crosley Jr. and executive Larry MacPhail, which included introducing night baseball to the majors, helped produce back-to-back pennants and a 1940 championship.

The franchise's defining era came in the 1970s with the 'Big Red Machine,' a powerhouse built by general manager Bob Howsam and manager Sparky Anderson around stars Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony Pérez, and Pete Rose, which won consecutive World Series titles in 1975 and 1976 and is regarded as one of the great teams in baseball history. A third title followed in 1990 under manager Lou Piniella, but the subsequent decades brought a long competitive decline, including Rose's banishment from baseball and ownership controversies under Marge Schott. Under principal owner Bob Castellini, the club has had only intermittent success, including division titles in 2010 and 2012, without winning a postseason series since 1995.