Best Stranger Things episodes: our top 10, from the highest-rated to the most striking
Guide · Top 10 · Episodes
42 episodes, five seasons, and a handful of episodes everyone cites: Max's at the cemetery, Eddie's and his guitar, the one where Will raises his hand. Here is our top 10, crossed with the audience scores. With, for each, the scene that justifies it.
The essentials
- Number 1: “Dear Billy”, Season 4, episode 4
- The highest-rated: “The Piggyback”, Season 4, episode 9
- The surprise: “Sorcerer”, Season 5, episode 4
- The classic: “The Gate”, Season 2, episode 9
Contents
The top 10
| Rank | Episode | Season | The scene |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dear Billy | 4 | Max runs toward her friends on Kate Bush |
| 2 | The Piggyback | 4 | Eddie plays Metallica on the trailer roof |
| 3 | The Gate | 2 | Eleven closes the gate, the Snow Ball |
| 4 | Sorcerer | 5 | Will takes down the Demogorgons by thought |
| 5 | The Battle of Starcourt | 3 | Billy holds the monster back with his bare hands |
| 6 | The Massacre at Hawkins Lab | 4 | 1979: Henry, Eleven, the gate |
| 7 | the Upside Down | 1 | Eleven vanishes by blasting the Demogorgon apart |
| 8 | The Rightside Up | 5 | Joyce's axe, then the epilogue |
| 9 | the Mind Flayer | 2 | Bob's death |
| 10 | Escape from Camazotz | 5 | Max's waking |
The Eddie Munson T-shirt, for the trailer roof.
In the shopMen's Eddie Munson patch T-shirt39,90 €See the product
The first three, in detail
Dear Billy is the episode of the show: Max, condemned by Vecna, reads her letter at Billy's grave, is taken, and escapes through a song. The cut between the trance and the run, over “Running Up That Hill,” went around the world in May 2022 and put Kate Bush back at the top of the charts. It is also the episode that made people cry the most.
"The Piggyback," 139 minutes, is the best rated by the audience: the battle of the Creel house, Eddie on the roof with "Master of Puppets," Max's death, the rift. "The Gate," finally, is the classic finale: Eleven closing the door, and the snow ball where each dances with who they should.
The ranking's surprises
"Sorcerer" goes straight into the top 5: the Will scene, at the end of the first volume of season 5, was the most commented-on of fall 2025, because it does justice to the character through whom everything started. "Escape From Camazotz" closes the ranking for Max's waking, eighteen months after "Dear Billy," with no music and no effect.
Audience scoresOn rating sites, the finales of seasons 2 and 4 and “Dear Billy” are the only episodes to pass 9.5 out of 10 on tens of thousands of votes. The lowest-rated remains “The Lost Sister”, Season 2, episode 7, Eleven's Chicago side trip, around 6.
The unloved one: “The Lost Sister”
Episode 7 of Season 2, where Eleven finds Kali again in Chicago, is the only one the audience rejected: cut off from the rest of the plot, shot like a spin-off pilot, it breaks the momentum before the finale. Season 5 still proved it right: that is where Kali exists, and the last riddle of the show rests on her.
Where to start, if you only have time for one episode
For the fear, "The Body," season 1. For the emotion, "Dear Billy." For the spectacle, "The Piggyback." To understand the ending, "Sorcerer" then "The Rightside Up." And to remember why you love the show, the first one, "The Vanishing of Will Byers": everything is already there.
The Max figure, for “Dear Billy.”
In the shopLego Eddie Munson mini figure on a bike14,90 €See the product
The best episode of each season
| Season | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Upside Down," episode 8 | The classroom fight, Will saved, the slug: the whole finale in one episode, directed by the Duffers |
| 2 | "The Gate," episode 9 | Three synchronized fronts, Dart who lets them through, the snow ball, and the shadow above the middle school |
| 3 | "The Battle of Starcourt," episode 8 | The battle, Dustin and Suzie's song, the keys, Billy, Hopper's letter |
| 4 | "Dear Billy," episode 4 | Max's letter, Kate Bush, and the first victory against Vecna, directed by Shawn Levy |
| 5 | "Sorcerer," episode 4 | The roundup, Henry taking the children, and Will discovering his power: the finale of the first volume |
How we ranked
We put three things together: audience scores on the major series databases, where season 4 episode 9 and season 4 episode 4 have led since 2022; the critical reception on release; and a more subjective criterion, what an episode changes for the show. It is that last criterion that puts "Dear Billy" ahead of "The Piggyback": the second is bigger, the first is the one that made Max the heart of the end of the show.
We deliberately kept mid-season episodes. The finales have the spectacle, but "The Bathtub" in season 1, "The Spy" in season 2 or "The Massacre at Hawkins Lab" in season 4 are the chapters where the show reveals what it has that is strongest: an answer to a question asked for years.
Ten scenes rather than ten episodes
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The body in the quarry
Season 1, episode 3, on "Heroes": Mike watches the fake body of Will being pulled up while Joyce hears her son in the walls.
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“Goodbye, Mike”
Season 1, episode 8: Eleven disintegrates the Demogorgon and vanishes.
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Bob in the lobby
Season 2, episode 8: Bob Newby, the hero, a few yards from the exit.
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Billy's beach
Season 3, episode 8: Eleven reminds Billy of the wave and his mother; he turns on the monster.
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“The NeverEnding Story”
Season 3, episode 8: Dustin and Suzie sing while the town burns.
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Max lifts off
Season 4, episode 4: Kate Bush, the cemetery, the run toward her friends.
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Eddie's solo
Season 4, episode 9: "Master of Puppets" on the trailer roof.
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Karen and the Demogorgon
Season 5, episode 2: a wine bottle smashed against a monster, in the bathroom.
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Will freezes the Demogorgons
Season 5, episode 4: three creatures hanging in the air, and a boy who stops being afraid.
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The gate
Season 5, episode 8: Mike watches Holly start her campaign, and closes.
The Season 4 poster.
In the shopEddie's guitar keychain12,90 €See the product
Takeaway“Dear Billy” at the top: Max and Kate Bush. “The Piggyback”, the highest-rated by audiences. “Sorcerer”, the Season 5 surprise. “The Lost Sister”, the only rejected episode.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Stranger Things episode?
For us, "Dear Billy," season 4, episode 4: Max saved by Kate Bush. The audience rates highest "The Piggyback," the season 4 finale.
What is the highest-rated episode?
"The Piggyback," season 4, episode 9, followed by "The Gate" and "Dear Billy," all above 9,5 out of 10.
What is the least-loved episode?
"The Lost Sister," season 2, episode 7, Eleven's Chicago getaway.
What is the best episode of Season 5?
"Sorcerer," the fourth, for the Will scene; then the finale and "Escape From Camazotz."
What is the best episode of season 1?
"The Upside Down," the eighth, which brings together the classroom fight, Will's rescue and the slug at Christmas dinner.
Why "Dear Billy" ahead of "The Piggyback"?
Because episode 4 of season 4 is the one that makes Max the heart of the end of the show, while the finale, more spectacular, is the consequence of it.