Constant grain yield improvement in cereal crops represents the primary objective of breeding programs worldwide. Information on the changes of yield related traits and their contribution to grain yield potential are important for further improvement of wheat breeding strategies. Objectives of this study were to quantify the grain yield breeding progress and identify the changes in numerical yield components of winter wheat cultivars. Field trials with historical set of 25 wheat cultivars released from 1930 and 2015 were conducted during two growing seasons in a southern Pannonian location, Novi Sad, Serbia. The following traits were evaluated: grain yield, thousand grain weight, grain number per m2, grain number per spike, spike number per m2, plant height and heading date. Wheat grain yield was positively correlated with the year of cultivar release. The increase in grain yield was 49 kg ha1 yr1, with a genetic gain of 0.56%, annually. Grain yield improvement was positively associated with number of grains m2 and grain weight, while associations with heading date and plant height were negative. The increase in grains per m2 was 86 ha1 yr1, indicating higher sink capacity of modern wheat varieties. Number of grains per m2 was positively related to both grain number per spike and spike number per m2, but the correlation was weaker with spike number per m2. Also, our results showed a significant reduction in plant height and heading date in winter wheat. Since values of plant height in modern wheat cultivars were already in theoretical optimum, further decrease of plant height without significant yield penalties would be difficult. Therefore, further improvements of wheat grain yield potential should be achieved by increasing both grain number per spike and grain weight, while maintaining optimal plant height.