Hugo Award for Best Series


The Hugo Award for Best Series is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The award is available for series of science fiction or fantasy stories consisting of at least 3 published works totaling at least 240,000 words, with at least one work released or translated into English during the previous calendar year. A losing finalist becomes eligible again with the publication of at least two new works totaling at least 240,000 words.
The Hugo Award for Best Series has been awarded annually since 2017. It was first presented in that year as a one-time special Hugo Award in advance of a vote to make it a permanent category, and was ratified as such by members of the World Science Fiction Society that year. An earlier series award was given to Isaac Asimov for his Foundation series in 1966 for Best All-Time Series. In addition to the regular Hugo Awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro-Hugos", have been available to be awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro-Hugos may only be awarded for years after 1939 in which no awards were originally given. A Retro-Hugo Award has been given for the series category once, in 2020, representing what could have been awarded in 1945.
Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as instant-runoff voting with six finalists. The series on the ballot are the six most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of series that can be nominated. Initial nominations of five series each are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of six finalists is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and are held in a different city around the world each year.
In the 10 nomination years, 49 series by 43 authors have been finalists, including co-authors and Retro-Hugos. Lois McMaster Bujold is the only author to win twice, for the Vorkosigan Saga and World of the Five Gods series. Eleven other authors have received multiple final ballot nominations, with Seanan McGuire and Adrian Tchaikovsky nominated for three different series; Robert Jackson Bennett, Naomi Novik, Charles Stross, and Martha Wells being nominated for two; and Ben Aaronovitch, Aliette de Bodard, Brandon Sanderson, and James S. A. Corey nominated multiple times for the same series. McGuire has the most nominations overall with nine, winning once.
WWW thehugoawards.org

Winners and finalists

In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when any work in the series was published. Entries with a yellow background have won the award; those with a grey background are the other finalists.
* Winners and joint winners
YearAuthorSeriesPublisher
2017*Baen Books
2017Tor Books
2017 Orbit Books
2017DAW Books / Corsair Books
2017Victor Gollancz Ltd / Del Rey Books / DAW Books / Subterranean Press
2017Del Rey Books / Harper Voyager UK
2018*World of the Five GodsHarper Voyager / Spectrum Literary Agency
2018Night Shade Books
2018Broadway Books
2018InCryptidDAW Books
2018Tor Books / Titan Books
2018Tor Books / Victor Gollancz Ltd
2019*WayfarersHodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager
2019Tor.com Publishing
2019Tor.com Publishing / Orbit Books
2019Machineries of EmpireSolaris Books
2019DAW Books
2019Subterranean Press
2020
2025*Between Earth and SkySaga Press
2025Tordotcom / Orbit Books
2025InCryptidDAW Books
2025Southern ReachFarrar, Straus and Giroux
2025Tor Books
2025Ad Astra

Retro-Hugos

Beginning with the 1996 Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Society gave Worldcons the option to award Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro-Hugos", in addition to the regular nominations for the year. Retro-Hugos can be retroactively awarded for years 50, 75, or 100 years before the current year, if no awards were originally given that year. They have been awarded seven times, for 1939, 1941, 1943–1946, 1951, and 1954, though only once for series. Retro-Hugos for series do not note the original publishers.
YearYear awardedAuthorSeries
19452020*
19452020 et al.*
19452020 Captain Future
19452020Doc Savage
19452020Doc Savage
19452020Jules de Grandin
19452020Pellucidar
19452020 The Shadow