In IMDb’s indexed top-rated list accessed October 8, 2026, “Battle of the Bastards,” “The Winds of Winter” and “The Rains of Castamere” share the highest displayed score: 9.9/10. The available snapshot verifies the first ten entries—not all 35—so this article reports those confirmed positions rather than inventing the rest of a 35-place ranking. See IMDb’s top-rated episode list.
How this IMDb ranking works
The ordering below follows IMDb’s displayed user ratings in a snapshot accessed October 8, 2026. IMDb describes its score as a weighted rating, not a simple arithmetic average. Scores and vote counts can change, and displayed scores are rounded; where several episodes show the same score, the list order should not be treated as a meaningful distinction between them.
Vote totals are a separate measure of how many ratings an episode has received. They do not determine that episode’s displayed score by themselves. The figures below are the values shown in the retrieved list and should be read as a dated snapshot, not a permanent consensus.
The 10 highest-rated Game of Thrones episodes shown
Spoilers: The episode descriptions below reveal major plot events.
#1 Best Overall
| IMDb list position | Episode | IMDb displayed rating | Ratings shown | Why it stands out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Battle of the Bastards” (Season 6, Episode 9) | 9.9/10 | 314K | Jon and Sansa face Ramsay Bolton at Winterfell as Daenerys strikes back at her enemies. |
| 2 | “The Winds of Winter” (Season 6, Episode 10) | 9.9/10 | 233K | Cersei and Loras Tyrell stand trial, while Daenerys prepares to sail for Westeros. |
| 3 | “The Rains of Castamere” (Season 3, Episode 9) | 9.9/10 | 187K | House Frey joins forces with House Tully, and Jon faces a difficult test. |
| 4 | “Hardhome” (Season 5, Episode 8) | 9.8/10 | 146K | IMDb’s displayed score places this episode just below the three 9.9-rated entries. |
| 5 | “The Spoils of War” (Season 7, Episode 4) | 9.7/10 | 127K | The first of six episodes in the snapshot displaying a 9.7 score. |
| 6 | “The Door” (Season 6, Episode 5) | 9.7/10 | 111K | Shares its rounded displayed rating with four other entries in this top ten. |
| 7 | “The Laws of Gods and Men” (Season 4, Episode 6) | 9.7/10 | 94K | Its displayed score is tied with the episodes immediately above and below it. |
| 8 | “The Mountain and the Viper” (Season 4, Episode 8) | 9.7/10 | 91K | One of two episodes at this displayed score with 91K ratings shown. |
| 9 | “The Lion and the Rose” (Season 4, Episode 2) | 9.7/10 | 91K | Shares the same displayed score and shown rating count as position eight. |
| 10 | “Blackwater” (Season 2, Episode 9) | 9.7/10 | 88K | Rounds out the ten visible leading entries in this snapshot. |
What the ratings and vote totals tell you
The first three episodes all display 9.9/10, so the snapshot does not distinguish them by rounded score. “Battle of the Bastards” leads the visible list and has the largest shown rating count among these ten, but a larger vote total is not the same thing as a higher rating.
IMDb’s series page showed a 9.2/10 series rating and 2.7 million user ratings alongside a 9.0 unweighted mean when accessed October 8, 2026. Those are volatile live-page figures; IMDb’s rating system identifies its displayed rating as weighted. IMDb’s ratings page explains its rating context.
Rank #2
Why this is not a complete 35-episode ranking
The retrieved IMDb results support the first ten entries listed here. Although an IMDb advanced-search result indicated 74 episodes, a complete top-rated list was not available to verify the ordering and displayed values for positions 11–35. Those positions are omitted rather than filled with guesses. A full 35-place ranking also requires checking the complete list on the publication date and confirming how IMDb orders episodes whose displayed scores tie.
IMDb users and critics measure different things
IMDb’s episode list reflects user ratings; Rotten Tomatoes’ episode guide ranks by its critics’ Tomatometer and includes critics-consensus text. The two rankings answer different questions and should not be combined into an average or treated as confirmation of one another. Rotten Tomatoes’ Game of Thrones episode guide.
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How the series’ IMDb reputation changed over time
In a May 16, 2019 press release, IMDb reported that Game of Thrones had received 1.5 million user votes and a 9.5/10 series rating at that time. The release gave “Battle of the Bastards” a 9.9/10 score from 166,000 votes—different from the later indexed list’s 314K ratings shown. IMDb also said the series held the #1 position on IMDbPro’s weekly TV rankings for six consecutive years, from 2012 through 2017; those rankings were based on page views, not episode ratings. IMDb’s May 16, 2019 press release.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Rank #4
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