The Best Crime Shows, Ranked
Rank the best crime shows head-to-head, True Detective vs Mindhunter and Line of Duty vs Narcos, then compare your list with the community. Early results (n = 22): too few finished brackets to call a leader yet. Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Mare of Easttown2021
Better Call Saul2015-2022
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Crime Shows: early results
Early results (n = 22). Win rate across 458 head-to-head picks from 22 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Crime show | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Breaking Bad2008-2013 | 44–18 | 71% | 2 | 62 | |
| 2 | Dexter2006-2013 | 38–16 | 70.4% | 3 | 54 | |
| 3 | Better Call Saul2015-2022 | 40–17 | 70.2% | 4 | 57 | |
| 4 | The Wire2002-2008 | 35–15 | 70% | 5 | 50 | |
| 5 | The Sopranos1999-2007 | 36–18 | 66.7% | 1 | 54 | |
| 6 | Sherlock2010-2017 | 22–18 | 55% | 1 | 40 | |
| 7 | 24–20 | 54.5% | 0 | 44 | ||
| 8 | Criminal Minds2005-present | 20–19 | 51.3% | 1 | 39 |
Crime Shows: an early tier list
Early results (n = 22) Too few finished brackets to call yet; the tiers settle as more people play. 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
- Breaking Bad
- Dexter
- Better Call Saul
- The Wire
- The Sopranos
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- Sherlock
- Peaky Blinders
- Criminal Minds
- Fargo
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- Narcos
- True Detective
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- Ozark
- Luther
- The Blacklist
- Only Murders in the Building
- Broadchurch
- + 1 more
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- Mare of Easttown
- The Shield
- Killing Eve
- Line of Duty
- Mindhunter
- NCIS
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Nobody yet
How the Crime Shows bracket works
This crime show ranking is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Breaking Bad or The Wire? The Sopranos or True Detective? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. A straight list invites you to hedge. A matchup does not, and that is what makes the final 24-deep order worth screenshotting.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), drawn from a pool of 24 shows. Entrants are drawn by a seed that changes daily, and New draw picks a fresh one, so an early upset in one run may never happen in the next. You can also play it at 8 or 24 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 24 entrants
All 24 entrants are listed below, including Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos and True Detective. Updated
- Breaking Bad2008-2013
- The Wire2002-2008
- The Sopranos1999-2007
- True Detective2014-present
- Mindhunter2017-2019
- Narcos2015-2017
- Fargo2014-present
- Ozark2017-2022
- Better Call Saul2015-2022
- Peaky Blinders2013-2022
- Line of Duty2012-present
- Dexter2006-2013
- Luther2010-2019
- Law & Order: SVU1999-present
- Criminal Minds2005-present
- NCIS2003-present
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation2000-2015
- Broadchurch2013-2017
- Killing Eve2018-2022
- The Blacklist2013-2023
- Sherlock2010-2017
- Mare of Easttown2021
- The Shield2002-2008
- Only Murders in the Building2021-present
Tier list instead?
Load all 24 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 crime show bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Judge the whole run, not just the best season, or every prestige show wins by default.
- Start at 16 slots. If the result feels too obvious, replay at 24 so more of the 24 shows make the field.
- Watch for the show you keep beating reluctantly. That is usually the sign you should undo and reconsider the pick before it.
Questions people ask
How many shows are in the Crime Shows bracket?
The pool holds 24 shows. 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, 24 slots.
Which shows are included?
Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Sopranos, True Detective, Mindhunter, Narcos, Fargo, Ozark, Better Call Saul, Peaky Blinders, Line of Duty and Dexter, plus 12 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Crime Shows 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 crime shows 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 show 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 shows that never met. If you would rather place the shows into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 24 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Is there a community crime shows ranking?
Every completed bracket feeds the Crime Shows community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 24 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
Can I change which shows are included?
Use the bracket maker: add your own shows, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 24 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.