Use the --sort=-committerdate option of git for-each-ref;

Also available since Git 2.7.0 for git branch:

Basic Usage:

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/# Or using git branch (since version 2.7.0)git branch --sort=-committerdate  # DESCgit branch --sort=committerdate  # ASC

Result:

Advanced Usage:

git for-each-ref --sort=committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))'

Result:

Pro Usage (Unix):

You can put the following snippet in your ~/.gitconfig. The recentb alias accepts two arguments:

• refbranch: which branch the ahead and behind columns are calculated against. Default master
• count: how many recent branches to show. Default 20

[alias]    # ATTENTION: All aliases prefixed with ! run in /bin/sh make sure you use sh syntax, not bash/zsh or whatever    recentb = "!r() { refbranch=$1 count=$2; git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads --format='%(refname:short)|%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)|%(color:bold green)%(committerdate:relative)|%(color:blue)%(subject)|%(color:magenta)%(authorname)%(color:reset)' --color=always --count=${count:-20} | while read line; do branch=$(echo \"$line\" | awk 'BEGIN { FS = \"|\" }; { print $1 }' | tr -d '*'); ahead=$(git rev-list --count \"${refbranch:-origin/master}..${branch}\"); behind=$(git rev-list --count \"${branch}..${refbranch:-origin/master}\"); colorline=$(echo \"$line\" | sed 's/^[^|]*|//'); echo \"$ahead|$behind|$colorline\" | awk -F'|' -vOFS='|' '{$5=substr($5,1,70)}1' ; done | ( echo \"ahead|behind||branch|lastcommit|message|author\\n\" && cat) | column -ts'|';}; r"

Result:

List of Git branch names, ordered by most recent commit…

Expanding on Jakub’s answer and Joe’s tip, the following will strip out the "refs/heads/" so the output only displays the branch names:

Command:

git for-each-ref --count=30 --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(refname:short)'

Result:

Here is a simple command that lists all branches with latest commits:

git branch -v

To order by most recent commit, use

git branch -v --sort=committerdate

Source: http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Branching-Branch-Management