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how to watch the walking dead in chronological order

To watch The Walking Dead in chronological order (including the main show, spin‑offs, and key web series), the best approach is to start with Fear the Walking Dead and its mini‑webisodes, then move into The Walking Dead , and finally finish with the newer spin‑offs like Dead City , Daryl Dixon , and The Ones Who Live.

Below is a viewer‑friendly, story‑first order that lines up with the in‑universe timeline as closely as current guides and fan consensus allow.

Core chronological watch order

Follow this list top to bottom; items on the same line happen around the same time, so you can treat them as optional shuffles rather than strict swaps.

  1. Fear the Walking Dead – Season 1 (the very start of the outbreak in Los Angeles)
  1. Fear the Walking Dead webisodes & minis (set around the early days):
 * _Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462_
 * _Fear the Walking Dead: Passage_
 * _Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water_
  1. Fear the Walking Dead – Seasons 2–3 (pre‑Rick, then catching up toward the main show’s early timeline)
  1. The Walking Dead – Seasons 1–3 (Rick wakes up; Atlanta, the farm, and the prison era)
  1. Early TWD webisodes (all take place during or between the first few seasons):
 * _The Walking Dead: Torn Apart_
 * _The Walking Dead: Cold Storage_
 * _The Walking Dead: The Oath_
  1. The Walking Dead – Seasons 4–5 (prison aftermath, Terminus, Alexandria beginnings)
  1. The Walking Dead: Red Machete (web series set roughly during seasons 4–8)
  1. The Walking Dead – Seasons 6–8 (Alexandria vs. Negan and the Saviors)
  1. Fear the Walking Dead – Season 4 (Morgan crosses over from the main show)
  1. Fear the Walking Dead – Season 5 (set after TWD season 9’s time jump window begins)
  1. The Walking Dead – Season 9 :
 * Episodes 1–5 (before the big time jump)
 * Episodes 6–16 (years later, after Rick’s disappearance)
  1. Fear the Walking Dead – Seasons 6–7 (moving the FTWD characters further into the future timeline)
  1. Tales of the Walking Dead – Season 1 (anthology; different points along the timeline, mostly after the outbreak is well established)
  1. The Walking Dead – Season 10 (Whisperer War conclusion and early Commonwealth era)
  1. The Walking Dead: World Beyond – Seasons 1–2 (teen group, CRM focus, set in the later years of the outbreak)
  1. The Walking Dead – Season 11 (Commonwealth storyline; end of the original series)
  1. Fear the Walking Dead – Season 8 (final FTWD season, overlaps late‑TWD era in timeline terms)
  1. The Walking Dead: Dead City – Seasons 1–2 (post‑TWD, Maggie and Negan in New York)
  1. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – Seasons 1–3 (Daryl in France, post‑TWD ending)
  1. The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (Rick & Michonne reunion story, set after the mothership finale; skip its flashbacks if you want to stay strictly forward‑moving)

If you only care about the main shows

If watching everything feels like too much, you can still follow a solid “chronological lite” run by focusing on the big series only.

  • Phase 1 (Outbreak to war with Negan):
    • Fear the Walking Dead Seasons 1–3
    • The Walking Dead Seasons 1–8
  • Phase 2 (Time jumps & multiple communities):
    • Fear the Walking Dead Seasons 4–7
    • The Walking Dead Seasons 9–11
  • Phase 3 (After the main show):
    • Fear the Walking Dead Season 8
    • Dead City , Daryl Dixon , The Ones Who Live

This keeps the core story while still following roughly in‑universe order.

Release order vs chronological order

Many fans recommend a first watch in release order, then a second in chronological order.

  • Release order benefits :
    • Avoids minor timeline confusion from time jumps and flashbacks.
    • Lets spin‑offs reference events that you’ve already seen.
  • Chronological order benefits :
    • Shows the outbreak and world collapse unfolding more linearly, from LA (FTWD) to Atlanta and beyond.
    • Makes late‑game spin‑offs like Dead City and Daryl Dixon feel like a true epilogue to everything else.

Latest news and forum chatter

Recent guides updated in 2025–2026 fold in Dead City , Daryl Dixon ’s later seasons, and The Ones Who Live , usually placing all three after The Walking Dead season 11 and Fear the Walking Dead season 8 in the timeline.

Fan forum threads continue to debate exact micro‑placement of certain webisodes and anthology episodes (for example, specific Tales of the Walking Dead stories), but the broad sequence above matches the most widely shared “full universe” viewing orders.

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Learn how to watch The Walking Dead in chronological order , from Fear the Walking Dead and webisodes to Dead City , Daryl Dixon , and The Ones Who Live , plus the latest timeline updates and forum discussion.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.