How Many Timelines Are in Dragon Ball?
A clear breakdown of every Dragon Ball timeline — T1 through T5 — and how each one was created.
The short answer
This map tracks five timelines. Four of them (T1–T4) are tied together by the Cell saga's time travel, and one (T5) is an external timeline that predates them all.
T1 — The Origin
The original timeline, where no time travel happens first. The Androids kill everyone, Goku dies of the heart virus, and a desperate Bulma builds the only time machine T1 ever sees.
T2 — The Peaceful Timeline
A branch of T1, born the moment T1's Trunks arrives with the cure. Goku lives, the Z Fighters crush the Androids, and Cell dies in his lab. It is the calmest timeline of them all.
T3 — The Show
The main show timeline — everything you watched. It is a copy of T2, created when T1's Cell couldn't land in T2's fixed past, and it carries the lone silver Time Ring of the present.
T4 — Trunks' Victory
A copy of T1's ruined future, but this time Trunks survives. A branch of T3, born when Trunks couldn't return to the fixed T1. It becomes the stage for the Goku Black arc.
T5 — The Universe 12 Traveler
Created long ago by a mortal from Universe 12 who built the first time machine in history. It predates everything else in the chart.