7 Video Games You Should Play If You Miss Stranger Things

Published Aug 5, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Stranger Things had heel on the throat of popular culture for years, aided by a relatively novel age of streaming services and seasonal releases on Netflix that surely took their sweet time. As was the case with Harry Potter, which is now hoping to take advantage of this streaming service format with its upcoming HBO reboot, fans got to watch Stranger Things’ actors grow up, and also grow up alongside them. Therefore, it’s only natural that fans might miss it now that it has officially ended, with all that hype having basically been deflated. Stranger Things’ popularity quickly segued to the animated series Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, and it probably won’t be long until Netflix ultimately decides to resuscitate the franchise by having its actors reprise their roles for a limited series or movie. Meanwhile, fans don’t have to wait for Netflix to hopefully outdo what it achieved with Stranger Things one day, as there are plenty of video games that can give them the same sensations they felt while watching the show. 7 Dead by Daylight Dead by Daylight may already be many Stranger Things fans’ go-to comfort game. With two crossover DLC Chapters thus far, Dead by Daylight can, in many ways, could be considered a Stranger Things game. You can have a full lobby queue of survivors playing as Stranger Things characters, even if some of these characters are only in-game as original Dead by Daylight characters’ cosmetic skins, and be hunted by Stranger Things’ Demogorgon. While the killer character was previously removed due to a contractual expiration, both it and the DLC’s Hawkins National Laboratory map have since been reinstated. Stranger Things characters featured in Dead by Daylight include Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, Vecna/Henry Creel, Jane “Eleven” Hopper, Dustin Henderson, Eddie Munson, and Robin Buckley. There's always potential for more characters, like Billy Hargrove, Karen Wheeler, and Murray Bauman, to be added as authentic survivors or cosmetic skins in a future Dead by Daylight Stranger Things crossover DLC Chapter. 6 Control Eleven may not wield a service pistol or have to navigate the Old House’s surrealist, brutalist architecture. Even so, Control’s Federal Bureau of Control and its shady SCP-like research, especially concerning Jesse and Dylan Faden, is an experience that isn’t too far off from what Stranger Things’ frozen Eggo-waffle-adoring protagonist endures at the hands of the mysterious Hawkins National Laboratory. Plus, Jesse is telekinetic, and anyone who wants to relish Eleven’s abilities (with her hand stretched out in front of her, as has been memed to high heaven) can do so satisfyingly against the Hiss by hurling rubble and debris with incredible environmental physics. 5 Silent Hill A plainclothes superhero dad traversing into a nightmarish landscape to rescue his daughter, confronting untold horrors—Silent Hill 1, more than any other Silent Hill, is quite akin to Stranger Things. Every Silent Hill game has an Otherworld, which is Stranger Things-esque in and of itself, but Harry Mason is perhaps the closest that we get to a protagonist being like any of the characters from Stranger Things, particularly Jim Hopper. Besides, while Stranger Things’ Upside Down turns out to be the passageway to an alien dimension full of terrors that are conveniently relatable to Dungeons & Dragons monsters, Silent Hill’s Otherworlds are much more convoluted and open to interpretation, behaving and molding to however each game would like them to be. Later Silent Hill games would then begin to forgo the tourist town’s cult underpinnings, for better or worse, choosing instead to make most games’ stories about the tortured manifestations of their protagonists’ psyches. That makes for an unquestionable departure from Stranger Things, which is much more interested in bringing levity and humor to interactions between its characters. That doesn’t mean Stranger Things is never depressing or gruesome, but it certainly lacks the same depth of psychological horror that, say, Silent Hill 2 has. 4 Life Is Strange Life is Strange and Stranger Things have a lot more in common than their names: a young girl has powers, Life is Strange’s Arcadia Bay is its Hawkins, and the search for the missing Rachel Amber is not unlike the search for the missing Will Byers. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that Stranger Things drew explicit influence from Life is Strange, as the name Maxine “Max” Mayfield is unmistakably comparable to Maxine “Max” Caulfield. Amazon Prime Video’s Life is Strange TV series adaptation is expected to premiere in 2027, and it’d be fantastic if the show could be a spiritual successor of sorts to Netflix’s nostalgia-fueled, 10-year-spanning epic. Of course, all five episodes of Life is Strange 1 were released first, a year earlier, and it’s been neat to see how both the Life is Strange and Stranger Things franchises have evolved alongside one another over the course of the last decade. 3 Persona 4 Golden Pluck nearly any Persona game out of a hat, and you’re likely to enjoy it if you miss Stranger Things and have craved a game like it since the series finale on New Year’s Eve 2025. Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 all feature groups of kids who divide their time between socializing with each other, attending high school, and battling otherworldly monsters. If any one entry will scratch an itch for fans of Seasons 4 and 5 with Vecna, however, it's Persona 4 Golden. Its narrative runs fairly parallel with the storylines of their killers running amok, and the two franchises share representations and metaphors for trauma. Thematically, you’d struggle to find a game that feels more like an extension of what was so beloved about the later seasons of Stranger Things than Persona 4 Golden. 2 Alan Wake It says something about Control’s Remedy that it has a penchant for zany, absurdist games embroiled in eerie sci-fi or fantastical horror, but Alan Wake is no different, and has its own Stranger Things parallels for fans to sink their teeth into. Alan Wake’s Dark Place and Dark Presence have been compared to Stranger Things’ Upside Down and Mind Flayer, but it’s especially clear that the two could be closely associated as kindred spirits due to their oftentimes heavy-handed David Lynch/Twin Peaks and Stephen King influences. Alan Wake, Control, Control’s AWE DLC, and Alan Wake 2 all bring a lot to the table, and Control Resonant is set to arrive in September. By playing through everything, fans can dive into an immersive Remedy universe that has a lot in common with Stranger Things, even if their differences sometimes outweigh their similarities. 1 Oxenfree Oxenfree will be the perfect game for fans to latch onto if they loved Stranger Things because of its nostalgia regarding coming-of-age movies. Stranger Things’ premise of a group of children banding together to solve a mystery that the story’s setting has in store for them isn’t novel by any means, but the show is a testament to how timelessly charming it is, with the added bonus of a flavorful 1980s backdrop. Oxenfree takes a similar approach, offering perhaps the closest thing that fans have to an official, narrative-driven Stranger Things game in many ways. Like Stranger Things, it’s reinforced by how strong and dynamic the relationships are between all of its characters. Stranger Things TV Show(s) Stranger Things Video Game(s) Stranger Things: 1984 First TV Show Stranger Things Cast Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Joe Keery, Jamie Campbell Bower Created by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Latest TV Show Stranger Things The Stranger Things franchise is a cultural phenomenon that blends supernatural horror with nostalgic 1980s references. Created by the Duffer Brothers, the series follows the residents of Hawkins, Indiana, as they face the terrifying realities of a parallel dimension known as the Upside Down. Since its debut in 2016, Stranger Things has become one of Netflix's most popular and critically acclaimed series, spawning multiple spin-offs and expansions, including an animated series and a stage play.