The Best Survival TV Shows on Netflix

What it's about: Sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes awakens from a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world dominated by flesh-eating zombies. He sets out to find his family and encounters many other survivors along the way.

Where to Watch: 148 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Philo, fuboTV & 1 other). 16 episodes (11%) are available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (AMC). 147 episodes (99%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: 100 years in the future, when the Earth has been abandoned due to radioactivity, the last surviving humans live on an ark orbiting the planet — but the ark won't last forever. So the repressive regime picks 100 expendable juvenile delinquents to send down to Earth to see if the planet is still habitable.

Where to Watch: 5 episodes (5%) are available to watch free online (The CW). 100 episodes (99%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 101 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: After crash-landing on an alien planet, the Robinson family fights against all odds to survive and escape. But they're surrounded by hidden dangers.

Where to Watch: 20 episodes (95%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 11 episodes (52%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The one adored as the mother is not the real parent. The people living here together are not actual siblings. The Gracefield House is where orphaned children live. An irreplaceable home where 38 siblings and Mom live happy lives, even with no blood relations. However, their everyday life suddenly came to an abrupt end one day...

Where to Watch: 12 episodes (100%) are available to watch free online (Crunchyroll). 12 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, HBO MAX & 2 others).

What it's about: In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now...

Where to Watch: 89 episodes (63%) are available to watch free online (Crunchyroll). 99 episodes (70%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll Premium & 1 other). 25 episodes (18%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Zombies are rampaging throughout Britain. Blissfully unaware of gory events outside, the Big Brother housemates are in for the ultimate eviction night...

Where to Watch: 10 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 5 episodes (50%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: When the sun suddenly starts killing everything in its path, passengers on an overnight flight from Brussels attempt to survive by any means necessary.

Where to Watch: 6 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: A reality show contest where sixteen or more castaways split between two or more “Tribes” are taken to a remote isolated location and are forced to live off the land with meager supplies for roughly 39 days. Frequent physical challenges are used to pit the tribes against each other for rewards, such as food or luxuries, or for “Immunity”, forcing the other tribe to attend “Tribal Council”, where they must vote off one of their players.

Where to Watch: 598 episodes (98%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Hulu & 1 other). 482 episodes (79%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video & 3 others).

What it's about: Set amidst a wave of violent animal attacks sweeping across the planet, a young renegade scientist is thrust into a race to unlock the mystery behind this pandemic before time runs out for animals and humans alike.

Where to Watch: 39 episodes (72%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 53 episodes (98%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Status and strategy collide in this social experiment and competition show where online players flirt, befriend and catfish their way toward $100,000.

Where to Watch: 12 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: Three years after the zombie virus has gutted the country, a team of everyday heroes must transport the only known survivor of the plague from New York to California, where the last functioning viral lab waits for his blood.

Where to Watch: 68 episodes (99%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 68 episodes (99%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Jericho is an American action/drama series that centers on the residents of the fictional town of Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States.

Where to Watch: 3 episodes (10%) are available to watch free online (CBS). 29 episodes (97%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & CBS All Access). 29 episodes (97%) are available to rent or buy from $0.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Hyakkaou Private Academy. An institution for the privileged with a very peculiar curriculum. You see, when you're the sons and daughters of the wealthiest of the wealthy, it's not athletic prowess or book smarts that keep you ahead. It's reading your opponent, the art of the deal. What better way to hone those skills than with a rigorous curriculum of gambling? At Hyakkaou Private Academy, the winners live like kings, and the losers are put through the wringer. But when Yumeko Jabami enrolls, she's gonna teach these kids what a high roller really looks like!

Where to Watch: 17 episodes (71%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: In a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, herbivores and carnivores coexist with each other. For the adolescences of Cherryton Academy, school life is filled with hope, romance, distrust, and uneasiness. The main character is Regoshi the wolf, a member of the drama club. Despite his menacing appearance, he has a very gentle heart. Throughout most of his life, he has always been an object of fear and hatred by other animals, and he's been quite accustomed to that lifestyle. But soon, he finds himself becoming more involved with his fellow classmates who have their own share of insecurities and finds his life in school changing slowly.

Where to Watch: 12 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: Between is the story of a town under siege from a mysterious disease that has wiped out everybody except those 21 years old and under. The series explores the power vacuum that results when a government has quarantined a 10-mile diameter area and left the inhabitants to fend for themselves.

Where to Watch: 12 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 6 episodes (50%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: One family’s fight for survival in a future dystopian Madrid illustrates the disparity between two worlds separated by a fence — and so much more.

Where to Watch: 1 episodes (8%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: In the early 2050s, unknown life forms called “Oracle cells” begin their uncontrolled consumption of all life on Earth. Their ravenous appetite and remarkable adaptability earn them first dread, then awe, and finally the name “aragami”. In the face of an enemy completely immune to conventional weapons, urban civilization collapses, and each day humanity is driven further and further toward extinction. One single ray of hope remains for humanity. Following the development of “God Arcs”—living weapons which incorporate Oracle cells—their wielders are organized into an elite force.

Where to Watch: 13 episodes (100%) are available to watch free online (Crunchyroll). 13 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & Funimation).

What it's about: Based on Sakyo Komatsu's 1973 bestseller sci-fi novel "Japan Sinks." The story is set right after the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and follows the fate of the four members of the Muto family, including the protagonist girl Ayumu and her younger brother Gou.

Where to Watch: 10 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: The boundaries between military discipline and human desire are tested on a U.S. Army base that houses an elite unit of helicopter pilots trained to perform clandestine international and domestic missions. The drama unfolds in the present as well as in flashbacks to a failed mission involving one of the first female pilots in the unit, ultimately uncovering layers of personal and government/military secrets and leading to a season-long plan to rescue a group of MIA soldiers.

Where to Watch: 5 episodes (38%) are available to watch free online (The CW). 13 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 13 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In this interactive series, you'll make key decisions to help Bear Grylls survive, thrive and complete missions in the harshest environments on Earth.

Where to Watch: 8 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: A zombie apocalypse that imprisons participants and producers of a reality show called Olimpo, The House of the Gods. The studio becomes a shelter for those who seek salvation in Rio de Janeiro where chaos and hopelessness begin to rule.

Where to Watch: 10 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: Doomsday Preppers is an American reality television series that airs on the National Geographic Channel. Dräger Equipment, Wise Food Storage Company and the United States Gold Bureau are sponsors of the show.

Where to Watch: 48 episodes (96%) are available to watch free online (NatGeo). 18 episodes (36%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix). 49 episodes (98%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: This documentary series examines the Einsatzgruppen, Nazis responsible for the mass murder of Jews, Romani and Soviet prisoners in Eastern Europe.

Where to Watch: 4 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: A group of heavy recovery drivers work to keep traffic rolling on some of the busiest and most unforgiving roads on the planet, Ontario’s 400-series highways. When disaster strikes on these roads, the pressure is on to get them cleared and reopened.

Where to Watch: 19 episodes (46%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: On a desert island lives a starving hyena with one obsession: devour that delicious mermaid from the rock in the lagoon. But the lovely fish-girl’s best friend is a shark, a shark with a lot of muscle and who loves to sabotage the hyena’s every move.

Where to Watch: 52 episodes (28%) are available to watch free online (Tubi). 43 episodes (23%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).