How many episodes are in Stranger Things 5? Every episode's release date

Stranger Things is back. I can hardly believe that season 5 is, finally, upon us – and what a long time coming it's been.

The original season of one of Netflix's most popular shows ever could first be streamed back in 2016, so it's knocking on the door of a full decade for the show to come to a close.

Stranger Things 5 – representing the fifth and final season – isn't released all at once, though. You'll have to wait for the eight episodes to release across three release dates.

Because each airs at 5pm Pacific Time for those on the West Coast in the USA, the 8-hour time difference means that UK audiences will always get it the next day – from 1am GMT, if you're super keen!

Most people will likely tune in when the evening comes around, I suspect, and here's when UK viewers (and, indeed, those everywhere but the USA) can do so for each of them (Netflix's official page has a breakdown per region):

Stranger Thing 5: When does each episode stream?

• Episode 1: The Crawl – Thursday 27 November 2025
• Episode 2: The Vanishing of… – Thursday 27 November 2025
• Episode 3: The Turnbow Trap – Thursday 27 November 2025
• Episode 4: Sorcerer – Thursday 27 November 2025
• Episode 5: Shock Jock – Friday 26 December 2025
• Episode 6: Escape From Camazotz – Friday 26 December 2025
• Episode 7: The Bridge – Friday 26 December 2025
• Episode 8: The Rightside Up – Thursday 1 January 2026

You'll want to ensure you give each episode its due, too, as a number of them are actually longer than your average – with the New Years Day finale clocking in at just over two hours!

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Here's a rundown of each episode's length, just so you can ensure you don't start watching too close to bedtime – not that anyone's going to sleep soundly after the mayhem going on in The Upside Down.

Stranger Things 5 episode runtimes

• Episode 1: 1 hour and 8 minutes (68 minutes)
• Episode 2: 54 minutes
• Episode 3: 1 hour and 6 minutes (66 minutes)
• Episode 4: 1 hour and 23 minutes (83 minutes)
• Episode 5: 1 hour and 17 minutes (77 minutes)
• Episode 6: 58 minutes
• Episode 7: 1 hour and 37 minutes (97 minutes)
• Episode 8: 2 hours and 1 minute (121 minutes)

By my calculations that's a full 624 minutes, meaning 10 hours and 24 minutes of runtime for the full season. Perhaps perplexing that the showrunners didn't opt for 10 episodes instead of eight.

Still, we're all very much here for it and looking forward to Stranger Things coming to a close. I suspect Netflix, one of the best streaming services, will have some very big viewer figures across the Christmas period and through into 2026 this year...