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TV Show Drinking Game
Catchphrases, cold opens and cliffhangers - drink on cue.
TV Show Drinking Game
Stranger Things Drinking Game
The **Stranger Things Drinking Game** is built on Hawkins' rituals: the kids pedalling away from danger, Eleven's...
You watchStranger Things
You needDrinks + friends
Triggers14 drink rules
Best with2-15 players
The Stranger Things Drinking Game is built on Hawkins' rituals: the kids pedalling away from danger, Eleven's nosebleed after she moves something with her mind, Dustin's D&D references, Hopper lighting a cigarette instead of dealing with his feelings. Those beats repeat across all five seasons, which is what makes it such a reliable TV show drinking game - the show tells you when to drink long before the Demogorgon does.
The runtime is the thing to watch. Season 1 episodes are under an hour; by Season 4 they run 75 minutes to more than two hours, and the finales are movie-length. A trigger list that feels gentle in Season 1 hits three times as often in a Season 4 episode, so pick the season before you pick the rules.
How to set it up
- Pick the season for its runtime: Season 1 for a one-hour game, Season 4 for a two-hour one, and be honest about how many episodes that means.
- Set the 80s song rule before you start. Season 3 and Season 4 are wall-to-wall needle-drops - 'Running Up That Hill' alone comes back again and again - so count only the first play of each song per episode.
- Give someone the Hawkins Lab and government agents to watch. Dr. Brenner's men, the Season 3 Russians and the Season 4 army all count, and they often appear in cutaways with no dialogue.
- Make sure everyone knows Eleven's tells - the nosebleed, the tilt of the head, the outstretched hand - so nobody misses the double sip when she moves something small in the background.
The rules: drink when…
The heart of the game: 14 triggers. Read them out before you press play, keep the ones your group likes, cut any that would fire every minute, and remember that a "drink" is one sip.
| When this happens… | …you drink |
|---|---|
| The Upside Down appears on screen | Sip |
| Eleven's nose bleeds after using her powers | Sip twice |
| Someone eats or mentions Eggo waffles | Sip |
| The kids ride off on their bikes | Sip |
| Dustin references Dungeons & Dragons or shouts a curse | Sip |
| A character uses a walkie-talkie and says 'over' or 'do you copy' | Sip |
| Hopper loses his temper, smokes, or grabs a drink | Sip twice |
| Steve fusses over his hair or babysits the kids | Sip |
| Joyce panics about Will or strings up Christmas lights | Sip |
| A Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, or monster appears | Sip |
| The Hawkins Lab or government agents show up | Sip |
| Someone names a creature after a D&D monster (Demogorgon, Vecna) | Sip |
| An 80s song drops on the soundtrack | Sip |
| Eleven unleashes her full power with a scream | Drink for 3 seconds |
How to play
Match the list to the season
Season 1 is bikes, walkies, Eggos and Christmas lights. Season 2 adds the Mind Flayer and Demodogs. Season 3 is Steve, Robin and the mall. Season 4 is Vecna, Eddie's Hellfire Club and Hopper in the Russian prison. Keep the triggers that belong to the season and drop the ones that do not.
Treat Eleven as the metronome
She uses her powers a few times per episode and each one is a double sip on the nosebleed. When she opens the gate, lifts the Demogorgon or faces Vecna, that is the three-second drink - it is usually the last ten minutes of a finale.
Handle Hopper
Hopper smokes, drinks or loses his temper in nearly every scene from Season 1 to Season 3, so his trigger is the one that gets out of hand. In Season 4 he is in Kamchatka and it barely fires; in the early seasons count it once per scene rather than once per cigarette.
Pace a Season 4 episode
The Season 4 finale runs about two and a half hours and the Season 4 episodes average well over an hour, so one Season 4 episode is a full game. Start with three Season 1 episodes if you want a shorter night, or one Season 4 episode if you want the spectacle.
Variations & house rules
Kids vs adults
One team follows the kids (bikes, D&D, walkie-talkies), the other follows the adults (Hopper, Joyce, the lab). Drink whenever your side is driving the scene - it splits the room and keeps both storylines in play.
Steve's babysitting club
From Season 2 onward, Steve is the reluctant babysitter. His player drinks whenever a kid rolls their eyes at him, whenever he mentions his hair or a girl, and whenever he gets beaten up. Everyone else drinks whenever he actually saves someone, which happens more than his player would like.
Hellfire Club
For Season 4 only. Everyone at the table rolls a die when Dustin or Eddie references D&D. Odd numbers sip; a one is a critical fail and that player takes a double sip. Retire this rule once the season leaves Eddie's story behind.
Pro tips
The Season 2 episode where Eleven leaves Hawkins to find Kali is the one detour in the show - no Dustin, no Steve, no walkies - so skip it or play it as a Hopper-free, monster-free breather.
Season 3 doubles the 80s soundtrack and Steve's screen time, so an episode there can drink faster than a Season 1 one despite being lighter in tone.
Season 4's episodes are the longest and the scariest, and the Vecna sequences are long single-take set pieces with no triggers, so give the room permission to just watch those.
Drink responsibly: A Season 4 episode of two hours or more on the full trigger list is a marathon, not a round - treat one of those as the whole night. A movie-length game adds up fast, so keep the pours small, water between drinks, and swap any trigger for a sip of water whenever you like. See our safety guide.
Frequently asked questions
Which Stranger Things season is best for a drinking game?
Season 1. Every trigger is live - bikes, walkies, Eggos, Christmas lights, the Demogorgon, Hopper's cigarettes, Eleven's nosebleeds - and the episodes are under an hour, so the pace is steady. Season 4 is the spectacle pick but the episodes run 75 minutes to two and a half hours, so one of them is a whole night.
How long does a Stranger Things drinking game last?
It depends entirely on the season. A Season 1 episode is about 50 minutes; a Season 4 episode is well over an hour and the finale is close to two and a half hours. Two Season 1 episodes or one Season 4 episode is a normal evening.
What should we do for a season finale watch party?
Keep the early-episode triggers but add a finale-only rule: drink whenever a character says goodbye, and take the three-second drink when Eleven unleashes her full power, which every finale builds toward. The Season 4 finale also has a Vecna showdown and the Hopper reunion, so keep the list short for that one.
Which characters make the fastest drinking game?
Hopper and Eleven. Hopper smokes, drinks or shouts in nearly every scene through Season 3, and Eleven's nosebleed is a double sip every time she uses her powers. A Steve and Robin episode from Season 3 is the lightest, sipping mostly on his hair and the soundtrack.
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