Film

Apple TV’s Longest-Running Sci-Fi Show Races Toward Global Streaming Dominance

30 March 2026

Apple TV’s longest-running science-fiction series, For All Mankind, is flying to the top of the streaming charts after season 5’s debut.

With Severance, Silo, Pluribus, Dark Matter, and Foundation, Apple TV has become known for its sci-fi shows, but none of them have been running as long as For All Mankind. Premiering in 2019, the series follows an alternate history where the Soviet Union puts humans on the Moon before the United States and as the space race continues for decades to come. Each season is set in a different decade, beginning with season 1 in the late 1960s and early 1970s and season 5 now in the 2010s.

On Apple TV, For All Mankind is now in second place on the global streaming charts. It is only behind Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and is ahead of Shrinking, Imperfect Women, The Last Thing He Told Me, Hijack, Tehran, Ted Lasso, Severance, and The Morning Show. For All Mankind is in the Apple TV top 10 for 100 different countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea. It is also on the U.S. chart in fourth place.

This streaming success comes only two days after For All Mankind season 5, episode 1, “First Light” was released and five days after it was announced that the show will be ending with season 6. Co-creators Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert explained that the story is ending as they intended, since season 6 will bring the series into the 2020s, and they always planned on concluding the narrative once it caught up with the present day to show how different the world would be if the space race had continued.

With an overall critics’ score of 92% and an audience score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, the series has been well-received across its now seven-year run on Apple TV. For All Mankind‘s season 5 reviews continue the positive reception, culminating in a 93% critics’ score based on 15 reviews as of this writing. In ScreenRant‘s review, Ben Gibbons hails season 5 for being “another wonderful entry in what is repeatedly setting itself up to be one of the best sci-fi shows in recent history” and gives the season eight out of 10 stars.

The high streaming viewership, critical and audience acclaim, and longevity are only part of the show’s success on Apple TV. It is becoming a full-fledged franchise on the streaming platform with the For All Mankind spinoff Star City. After the focus on the U.S. perspective in the original series, the new series changes the point of view to the Soviet Union. The spinoff’s first episode will be released on May 29, the same day that For All Mankind‘s season 5 finale will be available to stream as well.

Even though For All Mankind is ending with season 6, the series is poised to hold its record as Apple TV’s longest-running science-fiction show for a while. Season 4 will be the end of Silo, Pluribus and Dark Matter are only heading into their respective second seasons, while Severance season 3 is in the works, and the Adam Scott-led show has gained a reputation for a long wait between seasons.

For All Mankind episode 1 is streaming on Apple TV, with subsequent episodes dropping weekly on Fridays.