‘American Horror Story’ Seasons, Ranked

It’s been almost 12 years to the day since Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk unleashed “American Horror Story” on the genre-loving masses. Not many of us queerdo TV fans have stuck around long enough to enjoy the ongoing “American Horror Story: Delicate,” at least judging Season 12 by the series’ earlier viewership numbers. (It’s live on FX on Wednesdays, and streaming via Hulu on Thursdays, in case you didn’t…know?)

But even with the show’s spectacularly uneven quality and Murphy’s unfailing ability to drop the ball mid-way through a decent story, the creepy-yet-campy anthology remains an undeniable staple of horror TV and FX offerings. It’s got a smaller fanbase these days, sure. But we’re still thriving — constantly theorizing about how the seasons are interconnected and assembling some of the funniest clip compilations on the internet.

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On October 5, 2011, the co-creators and executive producers known for “Nip/Tuck,” “Glee,” and more wacky dramedy classics premiered the first episode of what was retroactively titled “American Horror Story: Murder House.” Starring Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, and Taissa Farmiga, the inaugural outing was a sexy and imaginative expansion on haunted house basics that leveraged a creepy Los Angeles mansion, a BDSM-loving entity, and a ghostly red-headed maid into TV’s preeminent multiverse of tongue-in-cheek terror.

Jessica Lange stole the show that time as neighborly nightmare Constance Langdon, but “Murder House” featured many future mainstays for the series. It was notably a breakout for Evan Peters as the wildly problematic school shooter character Tate Langdon (makeup tutorials for his skull face paint still ravage TikTok) and it was a significant career boost for Sarah Paulson, who played the psychic medium Billie Dean Howard.

Peters and Paulson are tied for most appearances in the AHS universe with nine seasons each, having survived as victims and villains in all kinds of hellholes, from a monstrous freak show to a cruel Catholic asylum to the unforgettable Hotel Cortez. The actors both sat out of “NYC,” “1984,” and now “Delicate,” and while Paulson could technically edge out Peters with her appearances in both halves of the bisected “Double Feature” — Evans doesn’t appear in the “Death Valley” half — the actor more than makes up the difference as the cast member who has played the most roles. To date, Peters has 16 characters under his belt. (Bad phrasing.)

Angela Bassett, Lily Rabe, Zachary Quinto, Frances Conroy, Kath Bates, Denis O’Hare, Emma Roberts, and Leslie Grossman are among the other actors who have repeatedly thrown themselves to the mercy of the sometimes disgusting, sometimes dastardly, and yet perpetually fabulous AHS washing machine. To honor their sacrifice — and attempt to muster some of our own enthusiasm for the more muted “Delicate” — here’s every “American Horror Story” ranked. We’ve broken out what each season is about and what it’s similar to, as well as the best casting decisions and campiest moments.

With editorial contributions by Mark Peikert.

[Editor’s note: This is best scrolled through while streaming that absolute banger of a theme song. Both the ongoing “Delicate” and spinoff “American Horror Stories” have been excluded from ranking.]

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