Was Stranger Things really just a game the whole time? Here’s all the evidence you need

The Stranger Things finale annoyingly left a lot of things open to interpretation, so people have some unanswered questions, and the biggest one has to be: Was it really just a game the whole time?!

Some people are convinced the whole show wasn’t even real, and it was all just the kids’ imaginations, while others disagree. Honestly, we’ll never really know, but here’s all the evidence for both sides.

Credit: Netflix

All the evidence that proves Stranger Things was just a game the whole time

That post-credit scene

The main evidence that’s got everyone thinking Stranger Things was all a game is the post-credit scene, which shows a picture of a Stranger Things “Player’s Manual” that says “Fantasy role-playing game”.

They never left the basement 

People also think the start and end of the show prove it was all a game. Think about it, the show started with the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons in the basement, and ended in exactly the same way. Maybe they just never left the basement?

Mike needed 20 more minutes 

This theory links to the first-ever episode too, when Mike’s mum tells the kids to stop playing Dungeons & Dragons. Mike reveals they’ve been playing for 10 hours and needs “20 more minutes” to finish playing. Now here’s where it gets interesting. The total run time of season five is 10 minutes and 20 minutes, so they finally finished playing the game!

Credit: Netflix

But there’s also evidence that Stranger Things was always real life

The post-credit scene is Mike writing a book

Most Read

I missed the Stranger Things finale’s post-credit scene and it literally changes everything

Sorry in advance: Here are all the unhinged pics and clips of Beavo’s mum on OnlyFans

There’s another son making OnlyFans content with his dad, so we asked him simply: Why?

However, others think the post-credit scene isn’t evidence that it was all a game after all. It was actually Mike who wrote the “Player’s Manual,” and it’s a campaign for a new game based on their real-life experiences. The show reveals he has become a writer, so it makes sense.

The show’s creators said they’d never end it that way

The game theory has been swirling around the internet for years now, and probably the biggest bit of evidence it’s not true comes from the creators themselves. In 2023, Ross Duffer said they’d never end the show that way, telling Metro: “That would be the equivalent of, ‘That’s all a dream’. No, I assure you that is not how we’re going to end the show.”

The post-credit scene is a joke from the Duffer Brothers 

People also have a theory that the post-credit scene was a little nod from the Duffer Brothers to the game theory, but it was never intended to be taken literally. Or it was the Duffer Brothers closing the manual on their own D&D campaign, aka Stranger Things.

Credit: Netflix

The ending is supposed to be ambiguous, and you choose your ending

The creators have admitted that the ending was supposed to be left ambiguous, with whether Eleven is really dead or not being open to interpretation.

“What we wanted to do was confront the reality of what her situation was after all of this and how could she live a normal life. These are the questions that we’ve been posing this season that Hopper just doesn’t even want to think or talk about,” Matt Duffer told Tudum.

“Mike’s obviously talked about it a lot, but it’s sort of this fantasy version that would never work. There are two roads that Eleven could take. There’s this darker, more pessimistic one or the optimistic, hopeful one. Mike is the optimist of the group and has chosen to believe in that story.”

So, the same goes for if it was all a game. Ultimately, it’s whatever you choose to believe.

For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Featured image by: Netflix