The 20 Best Sci-Fi Shows Streaming in 2025

Science fiction television is experiencing a golden age on streaming platforms. From mind-bending workplace thrillers to epic space operas to post-apocalyptic adventures, the genre has never been better represented. Here are the 20 best sci-fi shows available right now across every major streaming service.

How We Selected: We measured options using full-season viewing, critical analysis, and production quality assessment. We considered pacing consistency, acting performances, narrative quality, production values. No manufacturer or developer paid for or influenced any recommendation.

The Must-Watch Tier

Severance (Apple TV Plus) is the most original sci-fi show of the decade. Adam Scott stars as Mark Scout, a Lumon Industries employee who has undergone a procedure that surgically separates his work memories from his personal memories. Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller, the show combines workplace satire, existential horror, and emotional depth in ways no other show attempts. Two seasons of increasingly ambitious storytelling that rewards close attention.

Silo (Apple TV Plus) adapts Hugh Howey’s bestselling novels about a community of 10,000 people living in an underground silo. They are told the outside world is toxic, and asking about it is forbidden. Rebecca Ferguson leads a tense, intelligent thriller about control, truth, and the price of asking dangerous questions.

Dark Matter (Apple TV Plus) stars Joel Edgerton as Jason Dessen, a physics professor abducted into a parallel universe where he made every different life choice — achieving professional greatness but losing his family. Based on Blake Crouch’s bestseller, the show uses the multiverse as an emotional concept rather than just a plot device.

The Expanse (Amazon Prime Video) ran for six seasons of politically complex space opera following detective Joe Miller, ship captain James Holden, and UN politician Chrisjen Avasarala as tensions between Earth, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt escalate toward interplanetary war. The most realistic depiction of space travel and politics in television history.

Blockbuster Sci-Fi

Stranger Things (Netflix) follows the kids of Hawkins, Indiana as they face the Upside Down across five seasons of 1980s-set sci-fi horror. Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven became a global icon, and the show’s blend of nostalgia, genuine scares, and heartfelt friendships defined a generation of television.

Fallout (Amazon Prime Video) brings the beloved video game franchise to screen with Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, and Aaron Moten navigating the irradiated wasteland of Los Angeles two centuries after nuclear war. Captures the games’ signature blend of retro-futuristic absurdity and genuine pathos.

3 Body Problem (Netflix) adapts Liu Cixin’s Hugo Award-winning novel about a signal sent to an alien civilization during China’s Cultural Revolution and the existential threat that results. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss bring ambitious visual effects and a sprawling ensemble to hard science fiction.

Foundation (Apple TV Plus) tackles Isaac Asimov’s epic about mathematician Hari Seldon, who predicts the fall of the Galactic Empire and creates a plan to preserve civilization. Jared Harris and Lee Pace deliver commanding performances in a show of enormous visual ambition.

Hidden Gems

For All Mankind (Apple TV Plus) reimagines history with the premise that the Soviet Union reached the moon first, and the space race never ended. Spanning from the 1960s through a Mars colony in the 2000s, each season jumps a decade forward, creating a sweeping alternate history that is thoughtful, ambitious, and consistently excellent.

From (MGM Plus) traps everyone who enters a small town in middle America. When night falls, creatures that look human emerge to kill. Harold Perrineau anchors the most underrated horror-sci-fi on television with a performance that deserves awards recognition.

Black Mirror (Netflix) is Charlie Brooker’s anthology exploring technology’s darkest implications. Standout episodes including San Junipero, USS Callister, and White Bear remain essential viewing that grows more relevant with each passing year.

Constellation (Apple TV Plus) stars Noomi Rapace as an astronaut who returns from a catastrophic ISS incident to find reality has subtly shifted. Atmospheric, genuinely unsettling, and committed to its quantum physics premise.

Classic Sci-Fi Still Streaming

Westworld (Max) — the first two seasons of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s android consciousness drama are brilliant explorations of free will and creation. Altered Carbon (Netflix) delivers cyberpunk detective noir with stunning world-building. Battlestar Galactica (Peacock) remains one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made. Lost (Netflix) blends sci-fi mystery with character drama across six seasons of compulsive viewing.

Every show on this list is available on a major streaming platform. For individual reviews, see our Severance Season 2 review and the Best Streaming Services Compared guide.