Below are the 52 brightest individual stars in order of their average apparent magnitudes in the visible spectrum as seen from Earth.
To the naked eye on a clear dark night, in a place far from cities and lights, the total number of stars visible is about 9000. This is not the same as a list of the brightest stars as seen with the naked eye, because close binary or multiple star systems will appear as a single star brighter than their individual components. The binary system Alpha Centauri has an apparent magnitude of -0.27, but the brightest individual star is Alpha Centauri A with the apparent magnitude as listed here of -0.01. Hence Alpha Centauri is the third brightest star in the night sky, whilst its brightest component Alpha Centauri A is the fourth brightest individual star.