Mastering the light-induced four-electron oxidation of water to molecular oxygen is a key step towards the achievement of overall water splitting to produce alternative solar fuels. In this work, we report two rugged molecular pyrazolate-based diruthenium complexes that efficiently catalyze visible-light-driven water oxidation. These complexes were fully characterized both in the solid state (by X-ray diffraction analysis) and in solution (spectroscopically and electrochemically). Benchmark performances for homogeneous oxygen production have been obtained for both catalysts in the presence of a photosensitizer and a sacrificial electron acceptor at pH 7, and a turnover frequency of up to 11.1 s-1 and a turnover number of 5300 were obtained after three successive catalytic runs. Under the same experimental conditions with the same setup, the pyrazolate-based diruthenium complexes outperform other well-known water oxidation catalysts owing to both electrochemical and mechanistic aspects. Limelight on water oxidation: Two rugged pyrazolate-based diruthenium complexes efficiently catalyze the homogeneous photoinduced water oxidation in a three-component system including a photosensitizer and a sacrificial electron acceptor at pH 7. Outstanding results are obtained in terms of both turnover number (TON) and turnover frequency (TOF). © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.