True crime holds top documentary slot as overall orders fall
True crime is still television's most-ordered documentary genre, even as fewer new documentaries get made.
That was the message from Rahul Patel, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, in data presented at Seriesly Berlin in Berlin, as reported by Deadline. Demand for true crime remains steady, Patel said, while overall TV commissions in the genre, meaning orders for new series, are falling.
The global numbers tell the squeeze. Worldwide true-crime commissions peaked at about 2,500 titles in a half-year period in 2022. They slipped to under 2,000 in H1 2026, meaning the first six months of the year. That is still well above the 1,250 recorded in H1 2020. Since 2022, crime documentaries have held between 15% and 19% of all documentary commissions. The appetite has not gone away.
In Europe, the lead is clear. True crime drew 651 series orders over the past two years, the most of any documentary genre. Arts, crafts and culture came second with 481 orders, according to the Ampere data.
The split changes sharply by who is buying. Between H1 2024 and H1 2026, crime made up 35% of documentary orders from subscription streamers, the paid platforms that live on monthly fees, with sport second at 20%. Pay-TV providers were close behind, with 30% of their documentary orders in crime compared with 11% for art. Commercial free-TV broadcasters favoured crime at 18% over travel at 15%. Public broadcasters went the other way. Crime was 10% of their documentary orders, with arts higher at 15%.
Producer Christian Beetz of Beetz Brothers told the Berlin session that true crime was still the strongest genre for subscription streamers. His company is behind a fresh example. Clangold is a four-part HBO Max original about the theft of the 100-kilogram Big Maple Leaf gold coin from Berlin's Bode Museum. It is HBO Max's first non-fiction original out of Germany and debuts on 13 November.
The Berlin session was titled "Docuseries on the Rise: What Comes After True Crime?" For viewers, this means full shelves for now. Commissioning decides which crews get hired and which stories get finished. Crime still gets the slot.
