The H5N8 influenza subtype has been involved in the global spread of the Guangdong variant of the H5 hemagglutinin. The sequence data from all of the complete genomes from the H5N8 subtype was used to analyse the genotype diversity. Clustering analysis was used to assign lineages to each of the segments where different lineages were present. The results show that there have been multiple reassortment events both within the Guangdong and non-Guangdong H5 hemagglutinin containing variants. The Guangdong H5 variants can be subdivided further into two sub-lineages 2.3.4.4.A and 2.3.4.4.B that have undergone reassortment in both the far east and the United States.