American Horror Story has been renewed for a 13th season, though we probably won’t see it until 2027 if we’re lucky. Whether you’re new to the wild mind of Ryan Murphy or are a longtime fan ready for a rewatch, we’re taking a look back at the best seasons of American Horror Story.
What are the best American Horror Story seasons as of 2025?
Fans of the show will have very different takes on which seasons are the best, though it’s a pretty general consensus that the first three seasons are always contenders. Once you get past Coven, it’s really anything goes. As a note, this list isn’t ranked.
Season 1: Murder House (2011)
The first storyline to kick off the anthology series from the brains behind Glee, though, besides the occasional flash of pop color and style, there’s not much that connects the two in tone or narrative. The season follows the Harmon family, Ben (Dylan McDermott), Vivien (Connie Britton), and their teenage daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga). The Harmons move from Boston to Los Angeles after Ben’s affair and the tragic loss of their unborn child. Hoping for a fresh start, they buy a beautiful old mansion that turns out to be haunted by its many former residents, both victims and perpetrators of gruesome crimes committed under its roof.
Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, American Horror Story: Murder House first aired on FX in 2011. Filmed primarily in Los Angeles at the real-life Rosenheim Mansion, the season set the tone for the anthology’s mix of camp and psychological horror, and pretty much cemented Murphy and Falchuk as masters of twisted TV.
Season 2: Asylum (2012)
Season two gets extra trippy with an overlap of demonic possession, serial killers, and aliens. Say what? Yes, it’s all there. Asylum moves the story to Briarcliff Manor, a 1960s mental institution run by the strict Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), where patients and staff alike are haunted by sins both real and supernatural. Sarah Paulson plays a journalist who willingly enters the asylum as part of an investigation into its reputation but finds herself unable to escape. There’s also a serial killer known as Bloody Face (Zachary Quinto), and an alien-abduction storyline that somehow works. There’s so much in this season, it’s just incredibly impressive how the threads of these moving plotlines tie together.
Created again by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, American Horror Story: Asylum aired in 2012 and brought back some of the best Murder House cast members in entirely new roles, a signature element of the series.
Season 3: Coven (2013)
Often credited as one of the very best American Horror Story seasons, Coven brings a new kind of witchy teen angst and sets it against the lush, gothic backdrop of New Orleans. The vibe is irresistibly cool, but still spooky (and sometimes downright disturbing enough to stay true to its horror roots. Jessica Lange returns as Fiona Goode, the glamorous but ruthless Supreme witch, who leads a coven of young witches, each with their own strange powers and complex backstories. Under her daughter Cordelia Foxx’s (Sarah Paulson) tutelage, the girls train at Miss Robichaux’s Academy to master their craft. But this isn’t exactly a New Orleans Hogwarts. The witches are being hunted.
Beyond this primary plot, there’s also plenty more to keep things interesting. It’s got everything — magic, revenge, a quest for power and immortality, resurrection, and an absolutely stellar rivalry between Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) and the sadistic socialite Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates).
Season 5: Hotel (2015)
This season, Hotel had a similar setup to Murder House, in that it’s a building that’s being restored and is hiding its horrible history behind beautiful wall paneling. À la Hotel California, the Los Angeles Hotel Cortez has a premise that, of course, you can check out anytime you’d like — but can you really? Guests at the Hotel Cortez quickly discover that leaving isn’t just difficult.
But as far as the main plot goes, Hotel follows the owner of the Cortez, a vampiric fashion icon known as the Countess (Lady Gaga), as she attempts to protect herself and her children from the wrath of a vengeful ex-lover (Angela Bassett). There’s also a detective (Wes Bentley) unraveling a violent case, and the clues for a string of grisly murders are pointing to the Hotel. As is typical with American Horror Story, A plot and B plots weave together in a bloody, vibrant storytelling tapestry. As a warning, this one does get even more gratuitously violent at times than the previously mentioned seasons.
Season 6: Roanoke (2016)
Roanoke is easily one of the most meta seasons of American Horror Story, and it works gloriously well. This time, the show pays homage to one of America’s earliest and eeriest mysteries: the lost colony of Roanoke. The season starts as a true-crime style docuseries called My Roanoke Nightmare, with actors reenacting a couple’s terrifying experience in a haunted North Carolina farmhouse. But halfway through, the series flips the script in classic AHS fashion. The documentary-style approach, mixed with found-footage horror and brutal violence, gave the season a surprising tone that stood apart from the more stylized earlier entries. One of the more polarizing seasons, Roanoke proved that AHS could still reinvent itself six seasons in.
How we picked the best American Horror Story seasons
For the most part, the seasons are all entertaining, though some prioritize style over substance. These are the seasons that walked the line between both, so that the story was equally as rewarding as the spectacle.
