While the American grizzly bear is fearsome and cool to look at, the polar bear is generally considered the largest bear in the world. Its average weight is between 900 and 1500 pounds. The brown bear, averaging 500 to 900 pounds a close second.

The biggest polar bear ever recorded was a male shot in Kotzebue Sound in Alaska in 1960 weighing an amazing 2,210 pounds (1002 kilograms) and was 11 feet 11 inches in height. Source: Wood, G.L. (1981). The Guinness Book of Animal Records. pp. 240.