Ranking "American Horror Story" Seasons 1–12

American Horror Story: Delicate, the 12th season of FX's horror anthology series, premiered September 20, 2023. After a break because of the actor and writer strikes, Delicate returned in April of 2024. I've ranked all twelve seasons of AHS from best to worst, so you can binge accordingly.

Contains spoilers, if you hadn’t figured that out.

1. Season 3: AHS: Coven (2013–14)

Witches be trippin' at Hogwar-- um, Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.

The strongest season from episodes 1 through 13, with not a weak nor extraneous episode in the bunch. It builds on what you’ve come to expect from the first two seasons, but with a bloody dose of gallows humor and not-so-subtle commentary on aging and female dynamics.

From Jessica Lange’s bitchy Fiona to Emma Roberts’ super-bitchy Madison, Coven contains the AHS’ most memorable group of characters. Coven even finds a way to incorporate Stevie Nicks, which can’t be all bad.

• Best Character: Kathy Bates’ Madame LaLaurie manages to make an unrepentant racist/murderer somewhat sympathetic near the end of her arc, even while you still hate her.
• Best Episode: #12 “Go To Hell”- The penultimate episode closes out all of the non-Coven characters in spectacular fashion, some of who you miss more than the actual coven members.

2. Season 5: AHS: Hotel (2015–16)

Guests check in, but they don't check out. Because they get killed. I guess that means the cleaning deposit is put to good use.

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad Hotel
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad Hotel. Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga oh-la-la!
Want your bad Hotel

Contains some of the best scary sequences in all of AHS (the infected kid attack, March madness) and one of its most empathetic (Matt Bomer and Kathy Bates’ rather fraught mother-son relationship). 3 years before A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga proves she can act as The Countess, a person you’d think Gaga could play in her sleep but is given more diverse character moments that you’d think Gaga capable of. A star is born indeed.

The season falters during the Alphabet Killer scenes (you guess the killer about 10 minutes in), but it’s easily forgivable.

Recommended

"Only Yesterday" (1991): A Trip Down Memory Lane

• Best Character: A toss-up between Evan Peters’ mustachioed psycho James March and the Hotel Cortez itself. You know the cliché, “The Location is a character”? This applies in spades in regard to Hotel. The Cortez remains a place you’d want to visit once, and hope you get out alive.
• Best Episode: #4 “Devils Night” All your favorite serial killers converge for dinner at the Cortez. Bloody. Brilliant.

3. Season 2: AHS: Asylum (2012–13)

Intrepid reporter Lana Winters goes undercover at the notorious Briarcliff Asylum. Everybody thinks this is a good idea and that nothing will go wrong.

AHS’ sophomore season had the best first 6 episodes of television back when it aired in 2012. Because everyone is afraid of asylums (if you’re not, you might belong in one). It had Nazis, Jessica Lange with a Boston accent, even aliens. Asylum would have been ranked much higher had it stuck the landing.

The alien subplot was not handled well at all near the end, and neither was the denouement of the actual asylum. You almost forget Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan are in this and you’ll never hear The Name Game the same way.

• Best Character(s): Lana Winters is Sarah Paulson’s her best work throughout all 8 seasons. I genuinely felt bad for all the things Lana had to go though in Asylum, even if a good portion of them felt more than a little implausible. Shout out to James Cromwell’s (Babe) kinky Nazi doctor. That’ll do, Nazi. That’ll do.
• Best Episode: #5 “I Am Anne Frank Part 2”- The one where Bloody Face is revealed.

4. Season 1: AHS: Murder House (2011)

Because housing in California is so cheap, the Harmons head out west like the Beverly Hillbillies. This house is not clean.

You never forget your first time. From the twins in the basement, to Rubber Man, to the least happy gay couple ever, to Constance and her increasingly deranged progeny, AHS’ inaugural season filled a hole (serial horror that pushed the boundaries of cable before streaming services eliminated them) and we haven’t looked back since.

I remember back in 2011 when the school shooting episode caused all kinds of controversy and then we had an actual school shooting every week and fictional horror became a respite.

• Best character: Ben Harmon. The worst husband ever. I remember someone pointed out that if Ben had only kept it in his pants, then every season of AHS wouldn’t have happened. Thanks?
• Best Episode: #11 “Birth”- The one where the twins are born. The season finale after this feels almost anticlimactic.

5. Season 8: AHS: Apocalypse (2018)

It's the end of the world is we know it.

The most fan service-y season, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. If you think about it, the first two episodes are actually the scariest. Apocalypse turns into camp once the witches show up, but what high camp it is.

I can’t remember smiling so much during an AHS season. A plot device taken from the 1999 movie Galaxy Quest is easily forgiven, as well as the meandering final 3 episodes because, well, the Coven (see the #1 season).

• Best Character: Mallory, almost by default, since she’s the only new character that really makes any impact.
• Best Episode: #6 “Return to Murder House”- Sarah Paulson’s directorial debut! The return of Jessica Lange! Violet and Tate! The Harmons! Madison has a heart! One of the most complete AHS episodes ever and arguably one of its best.

6. Season 12: AHS: Delicate 2023-24.

The first AHS season to be based on preexisting material (the novel Delicate Condition by Danielle Rollins) and the only AHS season to be broken up by the writers' and actors' strikes of 2023.

Delicate started off so well, matching some of the insidious creep you got from the best and early seasons of AHS. Then the strikes happened, cutting of the season halfway through the episodes.