The Best Sci-Fi TV Shows, Ranked
Rank the best sci-fi TV shows head-to-head, Battlestar Galactica vs The Expanse and Black Mirror vs Severance, then see the community ranking. Early results (n = 14): too few finished brackets to call a leader yet. Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Westworld2016-2022
The Twilight Zone1959-1964
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Sci-Fi TV Shows: early results
Early results (n = 14). Win rate across 274 head-to-head picks from 14 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Sci-fi show | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doctor Who1963-present | 26–9 | 74.3% | 3 | 35 | |
| 2 | Stranger Things2016-2025 | 20–11 | 64.5% | 2 | 31 | |
| 3 | The Mandalorian2019-2023 | 18–12 | 60% | 0 | 30 | |
| 4 | Star Trek: The Next Generation1987-1994 | 19–13 | 59.4% | 1 | 32 |
Sci-Fi TV Shows: an early tier list
Early results (n = 14) 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
- Doctor Who
- Stranger Things
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- The Mandalorian
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- The Boys
- Andor
- Star Trek
- The Expanse
- Lost
- Black Mirror
- + 1 more
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- 3 Body Problem
- Firefly
- Battlestar Galactica
- The 100
- Dark
- Stargate SG-1
- The X-Files
- Foundation
- + 2 more
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- Fringe
- Westworld
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Devs
How the Sci-Fi TV Shows bracket works
This sci-fi show ranking is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Stranger Things or Black Mirror? The Expanse or Westworld? — 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 24 shows. The draw changes every day and New draw reshuffles it whenever you like, so the same show can meet a different opponent in round one and finish somewhere else entirely. 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 Stranger Things, Black Mirror, The Expanse and Westworld. Updated
- Stranger Things2016-2025
- Black Mirror2011-present
- The Expanse2015-2022
- Westworld2016-2022
- Star Trek: The Next Generation1987-1994
- Battlestar Galactica2004-2009
- Doctor Who1963-present
- The Mandalorian2019-2023
- Lost2004-2010
- The X-Files1993-2018
- Fringe2008-2013
- Dark2017-2020
- Foundation2021-present
- The Twilight Zone1959-1964
- Severance2022-present
- Firefly2002
- Altered Carbon2018-2020
- The 1002014-2020
- Stargate SG-11997-2007
- Star Trek1966-1969
- The Boys2019-2026
- Andor2022-2025
- Devs2020
- 3 Body Problem2024-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 sci-fi 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.
- Undo exists for a reason: an early-round mistake propagates all the way to the final, and there is no shame in taking it back.
Questions people ask
How many shows are in the Sci-Fi TV 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?
Stranger Things, Black Mirror, The Expanse, Westworld, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, The Mandalorian, Lost, The X-Files, Fringe and Dark, plus 12 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Sci-Fi TV 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 sci-fi tv 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 sci-fi tv shows ranking?
Every completed bracket feeds the Sci-Fi TV 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.