The spike in cases comes less a week before the presidential election on Tuesday.
Among the hardest hit by the latest COVID-19 surge are hotly contested states such as Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that will play an important role in deciding whether Republican President Donald Trump gets a second term or Democratic challenger Joe Biden becomes president.
The virus is also rapidly spreading to record levels in Europe, with France and Germany announcing nationwide lockdowns this week.
The previous one-day record for U.S. cases was 84,169 on Oct. 23. Globally, India holds the record for new cases in a single day at 97,894 infections on Sept. 17.
The White House coronavirus task force said the nation is heading in the wrong direction and warned of an "unrelenting" spread that requires aggressive action to curb new infections.