Breeding and improved agronomic practices increased maize yields with the genetic component evaluated in panels of varieties released over decades. We performed a comprehensive analysis that links, in common genetic material, yield progress to underlying physiological traits and corresponding genomic regions. We analyzed a maize panel including the 66 most successful European hybrids released from 1950 to 2015. The dataset consists of (i) measured yield and its components in 30 environments across Europe, together with environmental variables collected every day in each experiment, (ii) phenological, architectural, physiological and reproductive traits measured in ten high-precision experiments in three phenotyping platforms in controlled conditions and two phenotyping platforms in the field