Best TV series

Malcolm in the Middle wins 58% of its duels and tops the TV Shows ranking ahead of Breaking Bad, which holds second place with 1382 ELO points.

Only a single ELO point separates Malcolm in the Middle from Breaking Bad at the summit, a margin so tight it could shift with the next vote. The more telling gap appears just below: 19 ELO points push Breaking Bad ahead of Game of Thrones in third place, marking the ranking's sharpest divide. Malcolm in the Middle's edge at the top, despite Breaking Bad's higher win rate of 62%, reflects the volatility of close contests and the unpredictable preferences of voters. Stranger Things and The Big Bang Theory share fourth place with identical ELO scores of 1347, though Stranger Things claims a stronger win rate at 59%. At the bottom, Six Feet Under sits last with 1001 ELO points and a 33% win rate across 857 duels, while The Shield ranks just above at 1042 ELO. The lower reaches suggest a dividing line between shows that command broad affection and those that split opinion sharply.

This ranking draws on 20455 duels between 40 contenders, evaluated by 145 players. The figures were updated on 10 October 2026. Head to VAINKEURZ to cast your vote and shift the standings: every duel counts, and even a marginal lead can flip with fresh input.

Updated on October 10, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →