David Bowie's Albums, Ranked by Fans
Rank the 26 studio albums David Bowie released in his lifetime: Ziggy Stardust vs Hunky Dory, Low vs "Heroes", Station to Station vs Blackstar. Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)1980
Reality2003
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Rank all 26: the song sorter, about 91 picks for your full order, 1 to 26. All 26: a bracket, 25 picks, with tied places.
How the community ranks them
Results appear here as people finish brackets. Each pick feeds the head-to-head numbers, so the first players decide where all 26 start.
How the David Bowie Albums bracket works
This David Bowie album ranking is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars or Hunky Dory? "Heroes" or Blackstar? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. Nobody can hold 26 albums in their head at once, but everybody can answer "this one" — so the order you end up with is one you will actually stand behind.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), drawn from a pool of 26 albums. The draw is seeded: the same for everyone today, different tomorrow, and different again whenever you press New draw. You can also play it at 8 or 26 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 26 entrants
All 26 entrants are listed below, including The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Hunky Dory, "Heroes" and Blackstar. Updated
- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars1972Listen on Apple Music
- Hunky Dory1971Listen on Apple Music
- "Heroes"1977Listen on Apple Music
- Blackstar2016Listen on Apple Music
- David Bowie1967Listen on Apple Music
- Space Oddity1969Listen on Apple Music
- The Man Who Sold the World1970Listen on Apple Music
- Aladdin Sane1973Listen on Apple Music
- Pin Ups1973Listen on Apple Music
- Diamond Dogs1974Listen on Apple Music
- Young Americans1975Listen on Apple Music
- Station to Station1976Listen on Apple Music
- Low1977Listen on Apple Music
- Lodger1979Listen on Apple Music
- Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)1980Listen on Apple Music
- Let's Dance1983Listen on Apple Music
- Tonight1984Listen on Apple Music
- Never Let Me Down1987Listen on Apple Music
- Black Tie White Noise1993Listen on Apple Music
- The Buddha of Suburbia1993Listen on Apple Music
- Outside1995Listen on Apple Music
- Earthling1997Listen on Apple Music
- Hours1999Listen on Apple Music
- Heathen2002Listen on Apple Music
- Reality2003Listen on Apple Music
- The Next Day2013Listen on Apple Music
Tier list instead?
Load all 26 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 David Bowie album 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 26 so more of the 26 albums make the field.
- Use undo the moment you regret a pick. One reflex answer in an early round can knock out a favourite before it gets going.
Questions people ask
How many albums are in the David Bowie Albums bracket?
The pool holds 26 albums. 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, 26 slots.
Which albums are included?
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Hunky Dory, "Heroes", Blackstar, David Bowie, Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World, Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and Station to Station, plus 14 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the David Bowie Albums bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 15 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. It works the same on a phone as on a desktop, no login is involved, and progress saves as you go.
How does this compare to a drag-and-drop tier list maker?
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 album 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 albums that never met. If you would rather place the albums into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 26 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
How did everyone else rank these albums?
Every completed bracket feeds the David Bowie Albums community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 26 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
Can I build my own david bowie albums bracket?
Use the bracket maker: add your own albums, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 26 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.