The Most Iconic Album Covers, Ranked
All 32 covers here, ranked by 37 players. Abbey Road leads: it wins 73.3% of its matchups (n = 90) and was champion in 6 of 37 brackets. Disagree? Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Back in BlackAC/DC - 1980
good kid, m.A.A.d cityKendrick Lamar - 2012
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Iconic Album Covers: the community’s best
Win rate across 923 head-to-head picks from 37 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Album cover | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 66–24 | 73.3% | 6 | 90 | ||
| 2 | 71–30 | 70.3% | 4 | 101 | ||
| 3 | 54–30 | 64.3% | 4 | 84 | ||
| 4 | 48–27 | 64% | 3 | 75 | ||
| 5 | 46–27 | 63% | 2 | 73 | ||
| 6 | 41–27 | 60.3% | 3 | 68 | ||
| 7 | 37–26 | 58.7% | 2 | 63 | ||
| 8 | 32–26 | 55.2% | 2 | 58 |
Iconic Album Covers: the community tier list
From 923 head-to-head picks in 37 finished brackets. Placed by win rate, steadied toward 50% for entrants with few matchups: S is 75% or more, A 60%, B 50%, C 40%, D 25%.
Stier, win rate 75% or more
- Nobody yet
Atier, win rate 60% or more
- Abbey Road
- The Dark Side of the Moon
- Purple Rain
- Thriller
- Rumours
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- In Utero
- Wish You Were Here
- Random Access Memories
- Nevermind
- London Calling
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- Kid A
- + 2 more
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- good kid, m.A.A.d city
- OK Computer
- IGOR
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
- Led Zeppelin IV
- Lemonade
- Is This It
- The Wall
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- Born in the U.S.A.
- AM
- Back in Black
- Unknown Pleasures
- Sticky Fingers
- Appetite for Destruction
- The Velvet Underground & Nico
- Channel Orange
- + 1 more
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Nobody yet
How the Iconic Album Covers bracket works
This album cover ranking is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — The Dark Side of the Moon or Abbey Road? Nevermind or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. The awkward pairings are the point: they are the calls a drag-and-drop tier list quietly lets you avoid.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), drawn from a pool of 32 covers. Everyone gets the same draw on a given day, so you can compare runs with friends; New draw gives you a genuinely different bracket rather than the same path twice. You can also play it at 8 or 32 slots for a shorter or longer run.
15 picks, 4 rounds
- Round of 168 matchups
- Quarterfinals4 matchups
- Semifinals2 matchups
- Final1 matchup
Roughly 1-2 minutes start to finish at the default size.
All 32 entrants
All 32 entrants are listed below, including The Dark Side of the Moon, Abbey Road, Nevermind and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Updated
- The Dark Side of the MoonPink Floyd - 1973Listen on Apple Music
- Abbey RoadThe Beatles - 1969Listen on Apple Music
- NevermindNirvana - 1991Listen on Apple Music
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandThe Beatles - 1967Listen on Apple Music
- The Velvet Underground & NicoThe Velvet Underground - 1967Listen on Apple Music
- Unknown PleasuresJoy Division - 1979Listen on Apple Music
- ThrillerMichael Jackson - 1982Listen on Apple Music
- London CallingThe Clash - 1979Listen on Apple Music
- Wish You Were HerePink Floyd - 1975Listen on Apple Music
- OK ComputerRadiohead - 1997Listen on Apple Music
- Kid ARadiohead - 2000Listen on Apple Music
- Born in the U.S.A.Bruce Springsteen - 1984Listen on Apple Music
- RumoursFleetwood Mac - 1977Listen on Apple Music
- Appetite for DestructionGuns N' Roses - 1987Listen on Apple Music
- Led Zeppelin IVLed Zeppelin - 1971Listen on Apple Music
- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy StardustDavid Bowie - 1972Listen on Apple Music
- Is This ItThe Strokes - 2001Listen on Apple Music
- My Beautiful Dark Twisted FantasyKanye West - 2010Listen on Apple Music
- In UteroNirvana - 1993Listen on Apple Music
- IGORTyler, the Creator - 2019Listen on Apple Music
- Sticky FingersThe Rolling Stones - 1971Listen on Apple Music
- The WallPink Floyd - 1979Listen on Apple Music
- Channel OrangeFrank Ocean - 2012Listen on Apple Music
- BlondeFrank Ocean - 2016Listen on Apple Music
- Random Access MemoriesDaft Punk - 2013Listen on Apple Music
- Purple RainPrince - 1984Listen on Apple Music
- Back in BlackAC/DC - 1980Listen on Apple Music
- The Miseducation of Lauryn HillLauryn Hill - 1998Listen on Apple Music
- AMArctic Monkeys - 2013Listen on Apple Music
- good kid, m.A.A.d cityKendrick Lamar - 2012Listen on Apple Music
- LemonadeBeyonce - 2016Listen on Apple Music
- WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?Billie Eilish - 2019Listen on Apple Music
Tier list instead?
Load all 32 into the tier list maker and sort them into S through F yourself: same entrants, no matchups.
Open the tier list makerMissing something?
Build your own album cover bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Go with the one you would rather hear right now — instant reaction beats a considered take.
- Start at 16 slots. If the result feels too obvious, replay at 32 so more of the 32 covers make the field.
- If a matchup genuinely splits you, undo and replay it — a coin-flip pick in round one distorts everything below it.
Questions people ask
What is the best album cover?
According to 37 BracketRanker players, Abbey Road (The Beatles - 1969). It wins 73.3% of its head-to-head matchups (n = 90) and was champion in 6 of 37 brackets (16.2%).
How many covers are in the Iconic Album Covers bracket?
The pool holds 32 covers. A default run uses 16 of them and takes 15 picks across 4 rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 16, 32 slots.
Which covers are included?
The Dark Side of the Moon, Abbey Road, Nevermind, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Velvet Underground & Nico, Unknown Pleasures, Thriller, London Calling, Wish You Were Here, OK Computer, Kid A and Born in the U.S.A., plus 20 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Iconic Album Covers bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 15 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. There is no sign-up, and your progress is saved on this device after every pick.
Is this a iconic album covers tier list or a ranking?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other cover grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 15 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two covers that never met. If you would rather place the covers into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 32 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Is there a community iconic album covers ranking?
Every completed bracket feeds the Iconic Album Covers community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 32 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
Can I change which covers are included?
Use the bracket maker: add your own covers, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 32 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.