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Fantasian Neo Dimension for $26.70

Well, I can confidently say one thing about being “the Xbox guy” at IGN: it’s never boring. Granted, it is often frustrating, depressing, weird, and occasionally shocking. But there’s almost never a dull moment. So went Xbox’s 2025. As I looked back on last year’s version of this column, I found that I got plenty of my forecasting right, a few things wrong, and there was some stuff I could’ve never predicted. And so as I look ahead to Xbox’s 2026, I will once again expect the unexpected – but I’ll also dig into everything we can reasonably surmise about what could maybe, possibly be the last full calendar year of the Xbox Series generation before Microsoft seemingly gears up to release a console/PC hybrid.

The thing is, a month ago, this piece would’ve been a heck of a lot easier to write. It would’ve been all about Microsoft’s Big Four – Halo, Gears of War, Fable, and Forza – all returning in the same year for the first time in over a decade(!) to deliver Xbox’s biggest and possibly best lineup since the Xbox 360 days. But then Galactus, aka Grand Theft Auto 6, showed up to consume everything in its path, as it’s been delayed from May to November of 2026 and will now effectively have November onwards – a key holiday-shopping window of Q4 every year – all to itself. Any game company executive that willingly ships a game anywhere near GTA 6 should be fired and institutionalized. It’s not just a bad idea, it’s business suicide.

Clash of the Titans

And yes, nearly every major publisher will be affected by this to some degree; Sony has the long-anticipated Marvel’s Wolverine slated for the Fall, and Nintendo…well, maybe Nintendo is the exception to the Grand Theft Auto rule. But Microsoft is potentially the most screwed by Rockstar’s shifted timeline. Halo: Campaign Evolved is surely intended to ship right near Halo’s 25th anniversary on November 15. Uh-oh. Meanwhile, Gears of War: E-Day was almost certainly scheduled for the Fall (to wit: none of the five mainline Gears games has ever shipped outside of the Fall season), Fable’s hugely anticipated revival was probably penciled in for the holiday season after Playground Games delayed it, and Forza Horizon 6? OK, I’d bet on that one dropping sooner rather than later, because a Forza Horizon game doesn’t need a big public relations or marketing campaign. It’s such a powerhouse franchise with a sterling reputation that all fans need to know is where it’s set (Japan), what new cars are in it (TBD), and how soon they can play it. Once Forza Horizon 6 was announced at the Tokyo Game Show in late September, I figured it would probably be out within six months. And I still think that.

And what about Call of Duty for 2026, which the franchise’s alternating development timeline suggests is probably Modern Warfare 4 from Infinity Ward? Historically, Activision’s annual juggernaut always arrives within a two-week window between the last week of October and the first week of November. Considering how much overlap I’d guess there is between Call of Duty and GTA in the Venn Diagram of Casual-Leaning Gamers Who Only Buy a Couple Games a Year, which one do you think those people are going to choose if they can only afford to buy one of them (particularly given that they’re each likely to cost at least $80)? I know which one I’d pick…

Step Up or Back Off?

In fact, what happens to all of Microsoft’s big presumed Fall plans now that Rockstar has planted its flag in the ground for November 19? The short answer is that I’m not sure all five of Xbox’s biggest first-party games can ship in 2026 anymore. Not if Microsoft wants to make any money on them, anyway. The good news is that all of these games have a great chance to be fantastic titles that score big with critics and fans alike. Microsoft just has to make sure they don’t get squashed like bugs under Grand Theft Auto 6’s Godzilla-sized feet. It’s reasonable to expect one or both of Fable and Gears of War: E-Day to push into the first half of 2027, while I’d bet on Call of Duty being moved up as much as possible – mid-October might be as far forward as they can pull it without crunching all of its developers to death. And if Forza Horizon 6 isn’t already planned for the first half of 2026 (and again, I’m confident that it is), I’d guess that somewhere around August is the new plan.

And that’s not even everything. State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, and Hideo Kojima’s OD feel like they’re a little further out than next year, but there’s one lesser-known game that might stand toe-to-toe with anything else Xbox has coming up: promising pixel-art potential masterpiece Replaced. The debut game from Sad Cat Studios will finally land as an Xbox exclusive in 2026. I’ve played it, and it sets off my Spidey Sense as something that could be truly special – a possible generation-defining indie game, like how Limbo and Braid were for the Xbox 360 and Inside was for the Xbox One.

The Cavalry Has Arrived

Regardless of exactly when each of Xbox’s blockbusters finally drop, though, the Xbox’s Big Four couldn’t be lining up to land at a better time, because the Xbox brand image is in tatters. Repeated mass layoffs. Game cancellations. Studio closures. Halo heading to PS5, which was the biggest, clearest white flag Microsoft waved to tell gamers, “It’s fine, you don’t need an Xbox; you can play any and all of our games on other platforms if you want to.” It was a Covenant energy sword through the heart for long-loyal Xbox fans.

All Xbox gamers have ever wanted is a Sony-like pipeline of awesome games on a consistent basis. It would seem we’ve finally got what we’ve wanted – over the past 12 or so months, Xbox has shipped Black Ops 6 and 7, STALKER 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, South of Midnight, Flight Simulator 2024, Doom: The Dark Ages, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black and Ninja Gaiden 4, Gears of War Reloaded, The Outer Worlds 2, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered — but not without the monkey’s paw curling in the process.

Split Personality

And so as we look ahead to what to expect from Xbox in 2026, software shines brighter than ever. Hardware…well, rumors of the next-gen Xbox/PC hybrid are flying fast and furious, so could that mean an official announcement at the 2026 Xbox Showcase in June followed by a release in Fall 2027? And as for the platform? I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done to revive excitement in that.

So where does that leave Xbox heading into Year 6 of the Series X|S generation? Paradoxically, it is both better and worse off than it’s ever been, for all of the reasons I’ve already gone over. Exclusives are dead, but great games are plentiful. Hardware is more expensive than it was at launch, but there’s a pretty sweet handheld now. Life as an Xbox fan is both awesome and terrible, and I’m not sure I can sum it up any better than that.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

CES 2026 is nearly here, kicking off officially on January 6th and running through January 9th, 2026. Every year, this is the show where all the latest hardware and tech goodies for the coming year are shown off – whether they're new gaming laptops or some concept that'll never actually see the light of day. There will be a lot going on, but luckily I'll be on the ground in Las Vegas, sorting through everything.

Over the next week I'll keep this article updated with all the coolest gaming and entertainment technology at the show. This year, the show probably won't be as packed as it was in 2025 – which brought us new graphics cards and all the PC gaming hardware that comes with them. Still, I do expect plenty of gaming hardware to at least be teased, especially with the Steam Machine lurking around the corner.

What to Expect At CES 2026

CES is still a few days away, but that doesn't mean we can't take some educated guesses about what'll be at the giant tech show.

Mid Generation GPUs?

CES 2025 was so huge for gaming because both AMD and Nvidia released a whole new generation of graphics cards. That's probably not going to happen this year, but it is possible that one of these companies launches some kind of mid-generation refresh. Typically, for instance, Nvidia follows its graphics cards about a year into its generation with its 'Super' series of GPUs.

However, because RAM is seeing such high prices right now, there's a good chance that neither of these manufacturers is going to rush to launch new products that'd likely need to be significantly more expensive. We're even starting to see rumors that existing graphics cards are going to see price jumps in the coming months, according to Korean tech outlet Newsis. We'll just have to see!

AI Will Be Everywhere

Love it or hate it, AI is still a huge topic in the tech world, and I don't expect that to change at CES 2026. We're probably going to see hundreds of different gadgets that implement AI in some way, ranging from ridiculous gimmicks to actually useful features. Even in the face of companies like Microsoft backing off of AI investment a bit, according to The Information (Via ExtremeTech), it's still going to be a huge topic at CES this year.

Gaming Laptops Powered By Intel Panther Lake

While it's unlikely we're going to get a new GPU generation at CES 2026, Intel has already announced its new mobile CPU generation, code-named Panther Lake. While this architecture isn't going to power the most powerful gaming laptops, it's going to be behind many lightweight gaming laptops.

I did get a chance to see these new CPUs in action back in November, and was impressed by the technology on offer. These new laptop chips will have integrated GPUs powerful enough to play games at 1080p, and offers Intel's own take on Frame Generation – all without a discrete GPU. Pair it with a discrete GPU and who knows what they'll be capable of. Either way, I'm excited to get these new laptops in the lab – whatever they are. Intel has been needing a win for a while now, maybe this will be it? We'll find out next week!

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

If you're familiar with the world of components, it's no secret that GPU prices have been all over the place for a while now, and that likely will only increase in 2026. Rumors of NVIDIA cutting back production of GPUs by 40% continue to surface, and the demand for graphics cards has skyrocketed due to LLM/AI demand. It's a challenging time to put together the parts necessary for a PC build at a reasonable price.

Thankfully, a great deal has surfaced on Amazon for the Sparkle Intel Arc B570 Guardian OC graphics card. While this isn't a top-of-the-line model by any means, it's an excellent entry-level card that packs a punch, especially with the 10GB of VRAM available.

Sparkle Intel Arc B570 Guardian OC Graphics Card for $199.99

Spoilers follow for Stranger Things, up to and including the series finale.

Stranger Things burst into the pop culture zeitgeist 10 years ago to become an instant global phenomenon that captivated audiences for five seasons and 42 episodes. An original story from then newbies Matt and Ross Duffer, the Netflix series wore its ‘80s nostalgia on its sleeve, but it gave us indelible characters and performances that grabbed our collective hearts. As it wound down to its final two hours on December 31, the expectations for Stranger Things to stick its landing achieved the same fever pitch as Game of Thrones and Lost had in the lead-up to those shows’ endings. As we know, there’s no pleasing everyone, but the Duffers’ series finale focuses on its characters first and in doing so delivers emotional closure that makes up for some of its less satisfying choices.

While the two-hour and eight-minute runtime of "Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up” implies a movie-length conclusion, the finale is really the sum of two parts modeled much like Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Here, the first hour functions as a mega-budgeted, mashup homage to some of the great action classics of the ‘80s era — Red Dawn, Aliens, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and even TV miniseries IT. While the second hour serves as an extended epilogue that gives almost every significant character in the ensemble a goodbye moment of note. As a piece, the action resolution portion hits its high point early when Vecna’s the Abyss descends into Upside-Down Hawkins, dislodges beloved Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) from the WSQK radio tower and then goes to black. After a dastardly extended beat, Steve is revealed to be alive and snatched back from certain death by Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), which goes down as the biggest rush of the whole episode.

After that, the scale of several battles culminating in the Abyss are tense and effective. What happens to Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) is particularly painful, especially in the wake of Hopper’s incredibly poignant speech to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) about their suicide pact. But her need to give El a life beyond their shared pain adds resonance and purpose to her character. On the other hand, as expected the unrepentant ire and sadism of military figures Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) and Lt. Akers (Alex Breaux) never gets contextualized in the time allotted, which makes them the most throwaway characters of the series. Hamilton deserved better.

Otherwise, all of that leads into the Abyss where the melee between Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bowers) and Eleven is designed to be personal and intense. And the mega-Mind Flayer Boss Battle plays out like a D&D campaign moment on steroids. For all the bullets and Molotov cocktails, the most satisfying scenes come when Nancy (Natalia Dyer) frees her exhausted little sister Holly (Nell Fisher) from her Vecna cocoon, and then when Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) gets her moment, putting the death-rattles of the villain to an end by hacking him to pieces, intercut with a deeply moving montage of all the pain and death he rendered on the residents of Hawkins. The Duffers did very right by the whole cast of characters by not just reducing that moment to the cathartic act, but by reminding us of the tremendous cost levied on this town and its people.

In terms of bang for our buck, the finale season was a feast for the eyes and ears. In the last episode, the tower sequence, Max, Kali and El finally infiltrating Henry’s mind in the Creel house and the tension-filled standoff in the Upside Down Hawkins lab with Kali, El, Hopper and Murray (Brett Gelman) are excellent set piece sequences. And I’m not disappointed that a big piece of unanswered lore was dropped with that mystery Mind Flayer rock because it led to Bowers’ masterful performance as Henry watching his younger self embrace the evil within after murdering that mystery man in the cave. It wasn’t the circumstances that made Henry into 001 into Vecna; it was Henry connecting his darkest heart with the Mind Flayer’s intentions, and that’s way better than a redemption arc when this much damage has been wrought.

And let me add that the Duffers better be prepared for real-world music licensing realities post-show because the chances of getting a budget again to use the kind of quality needle drops they did in this series may never come again. The episode is bursting with great choices even outside of Prince’s “When Dove Cries” and “Purple Rain,” including sprinklings of Cowboy Junkies, Pixies, Fleetwood Mac and the final emotional blow of David Bowie’s “Heroes.”

Heading into the final hour, if you weren’t a fan of the multiple endings of Return of the King, you likely felt every minute of the successive chapter endings. If anything feels like it overstays its welcome, it’s Robin’s (Maya Hawke) radio narration and the graduation sequence. Yes, they function to give everyone in town a last moment in the sun, but by the end, it does start to feel like we’re all in those bleachers squirming under the hot sun. Much more successful are the intimate goodbyes — the older kids embracing their futures while still wistfully wanting to hold onto their bond, Hopper and Joyce getting engaged at Enzo’s, and the final campaign for the OG D&D gang.

I’m particularly happy that the Duffers didn’t buy into the series finale bloodbath methodology where swaths of characters have to go down to elicit audience feelings. Instead, they stayed true to what counted most in their show - their characters and the deep relationships they forged over five seasons. Life has already been intensely unkind to Hawkins and every one of its citizens. Giving our heroes and their extended circles some momentary peace and a sense of victory is what a D&D campaign is all about. You spend time building your character up and discover each other’s talents and put them into action when needed most. In the end — often hit points deficient and battered — you come out together victorious and ready for the next adventure. The Duffers never lost sight of that from beginning to end.

And that’s perfectly expressed in Mike’s (Finn Wolfhard) Stand By Me-style roundup of how he saw his friend’s futures. It was a sob-inducing, bittersweet way to tie up the profound importance of storytelling that remains the beating heart of this series… although the Duffers’ cake-and-eat-it-too closing on El is less satisfying the more you think about it. If you’re a realist, then Kali’s sacrifice didn’t give her sister a future and El’s choice means she really did live a terrible life of loss and didn’t get a happy ending for herself. If you’re an optimist like Mike, then you can imagine she lives, but what a bittersweet existence to live alone. However, Stranger Things has always been a modern-day fairy tale rooted in Gen X memories of unencumbered childhoods threatened by the realities of imagined evils. That the mythic heroines of the tale — El and Kali — were the means by which all of the Hawkins characters (except Ted) were able to grow into their best selves, that’s a story grounded by life’s truths and one that was well worth the journey.

We’re only two days into 2026 and Secretlab are already dealing out discounts on gaming chair and desk bundles that will have your battlestation or work-from-home setup ready for a fresh year of digital gains ahead. Saving up to $150 versus their standard pricing is all good in my book.

TL;DR: Deals for Today

Outside of the best gaming furniture around, Acer are knocking out refurbished RTX 5070 gaming PCs at over $400 off. If you’ve not been keeping up with the latest tech news, RAM, DRAM, and SSD storage prices are inflating up to four times their shelf price thanks to AI data centres snapping up that sweet silicon and copper wafers. So getting an RTX 5070 build with 32GB DDR5 RAM and a decent processor for just over $1,200 is ridiculously good.

On top of that banger deal, I’ve got 4K streaming device deals from Google and Amazon, topping that off with more than half off a set of Sennheiser Accentum Bluetooth headphones. I’m awesome, right? Let’s get into it:

Secretlab Bundle Sale

Having tested plenty of gaming desks and chairs from every brand worth their salt, I’d argue that Secretlab’s gear is worth it when there isn’t a good offer on. Thankfully, Secretlab are bringing in the New Year with their Titan Evo gaming chairs and Magnus gaming desk setups, with all their bells and whistles on for up to $150 off.

If we’re getting personal about it, I tend to feel so much better using quality gear when writing and gaming. So when deals come up like this for products that will last years and keep you comfortable whilst grinding out work and games, it’s well worth jumping on.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max

Google TV Streamer 4K

Acer Nitro 60 Desktop i7-14700F RTX 5070 32GB 1TB SSD

Sennheiser ACCENTUM Wireless Bluetooth Headphones (Black/Copper)

WolfBox 3000A 12V 16000mAh Portable Car Jump Starter w/ 160PSI Compressor

4K + Blu-Ray Steelbook Sale

Studio Ghibli fans, this sale is for you. With everything from Howl's Moving Castle to Spirited Away. Transformers: The Movie is here too, and it's the best way to listen to the best movie theme song in the world from Lion (I'll die on that hill).

From newer releases such as Straight Outta Compton to cult classics like The Blues Brothers, there's something for everyone in this sale, with the highlights shown above.

Save 64% Off Rosetta Stone Lifetime Subscription

Peloton + Fitness Sale

It's hard sticking to the gym, especially when you have a family and a full-time job to hold down. Peloton is a popular option for its quality equipment and a membership that gives you smart class recommendations based on your stats. And we've all tried buying cheap exercise bikes at somepoint, and in my opinion they ruin the positive start you're looking for on your fitness journey. It's an investment in yourself at the end of the day.

Peloton bikes and treadmills are pretty much like having a personal trainer inside your workout equipment whenever it suits you. Plus, accessories such as cycling shoes and dumbbells are up to 70% off, so it's a good time to give yourself the healthy kickstart you need for 2026.

Manga Box Set Sale

If you're planning on freeing up space to store One Piece manga, box sets one to four are all on sale. That's volumes 1–90 for a combined $636.26, down from $959.96, saving a massive $323.70. That's a little over $7 per manga, which usual are usually priced at $11.99.
If you're a Dragon Ball fan like me, the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z box sets are locked in the sale too for $97.99 and $175.66 respectively. That's a total of $273.65, down from $449.98, for the filler-free best way to experience the series. The way Akira Toriyama presents his panels is ridiculously expressive and a masterclass in what Shonen Jump manga is and should be.

Magnetic Building Blocks (150PCS)

Hand Warmers

Cheapest at Amazon: MTG

Commander Masters is the best set to get into if you love playing Commander, getting you legacy card reprints that are ideal for the format. It's not cheap, but Amazon currently has the best pricing for Set and Draft booster boxes.
If you missed out on the Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set when it dropped earlier this year, the game edition of Cloud Strife's Commander Deck, Limit Breaker, is at market value on Amazon right now. That just means you're getting it for a fair price compared to the secondary market, whilst being able to take advantage of that sweet Prime shipping.

Cheapest at TCGPlayer - MTG

TCGPlayer is still holding the top spot for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Play Booster Box preorders. It's a full $20 cheaper from its merchants right now, a saving worth getting over Prime shipping. The same goes for the Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Box, a full $30 cheaper over Amazon's price.
Amazon has its preorder price guarantee, but that only counts if they drop the price before release. You can't price match other retailers with this guarantee, so if you see a steep discount on a preorder elsewhere, take your chances.

Cheapest at Amazon: Pokémon TCG

It’s great to see popular sets like Surging Sparks and Phantasmal Flames Elite Trainer Boxes crop up for less on Amazon, with the former being below market value alongside the Destined Rivals triple booster.

Cheapest at TCGPlayer: Pokémon TCG

It’s strange to see Silver Tempest sealed product showing up on Amazon right now. Perhaps we’ll see more Sword & Shield-era reprints on store shelves? Regardless, TCGPlayer has the Silver Tempest Elite Trainer Box for far less than Amazon, and the same goes for the Prismatic Evolutions ETB.

TCGPlayer also has the best deal on Destined Rivals Booster Bundles, currently sitting at $52.50. That means you get double the booster packs compared to the three-pack booster deal in the last section for less than double the price. TCGPlayer really has the no-brainer deals right now.

Skytech Gaming PC Holiday Sale

Considering we’ve just entered a memory chip shortage across the board, with even DDR4 RAM going for silly money, getting an RTX 5060 build with 32GB DDR4 for $1,079 is a great deal. You’ll have solid 1080p gaming with either an Intel i5-14400F or AMD Ryzen 7 5700 processor to boot. Personally, I’d go for the Crystal build. It costs the same and gives you far more room for bigger GPU upgrades down the line.

If you’re looking to go all-in with 4K gaming out of the box for under $3,000, the $2,799.99 Aqua build comes with a gorgeous clear white and blue case, complete with CPU liquid cooling, an RTX 5080, 32GB DDR5, and the absolute beast that is the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of "Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior". Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait

Babylon 5 fans are hoping Netflix’s big-money acquisition of Warner Bros. means the chances of a continuation of the much-loved sci-fi series will improve. But creator J. Michael Straczynski has calmed excitement, insisting there’s a long road ahead for any positive developments.

Warner Bros. owns Babylon 5, which has remained largely dormant since the iconic space opera ended in 1998 after five seasons. Despite efforts to get a revival off the ground, nothing new appears to be in the works, but some fans have expressed hope that Netflix may be interested in Babylon 5 should its deal to buy Warner Bros. goes through.

However, Straczynski outlined the many hurdles Babylon 5 must overcome before Netflix — or any company for that matter — might greenlight its return. As for now, there is nothing in the works. “The studio is contractually required to notify me if anything is put forward on B5,” Straczynski tweeted. “No such call has come.”

Spoilers follow for Stranger Things, up to and including the series finale.

There will never be another show like Stranger Things. Sure, there will be spinoffs that are similar to Netflix’s series, which wrapped up its nearly decade-long, five-season run on New Year’s Eve with “The Rightside Up.” And throughout the past nine years, plenty of shows have aped the Stranger Things style, and will continue to do so. But charting the evolution of the show from its surprise hit premiere on July 15, 2016, through the finale right at the end of 2025 shows a decade of growth and change in the world of streaming that we likely won’t go back to ever again.

It might be hard to remember, but Stranger Things wasn’t always the all-encompassing cultural dominator it is now. In 2016, Netflix wasn’t even at exactly the same level, either. Sure the binge model had already begun to change the way we watch TV, and the streamer had plenty of hits ranging from House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black to its deal with Marvel for Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the rest of the MCU street-level heroes. But when Stranger Things debuted, no real “Netflix formula” had codified, at least not the way we think about it today.

Stranger Things helped set the stage. An original property that many viewers thought of as “that Winona Ryder show” dropped without a ton of advance buzz or real understanding of what it was, other than some sort of homage to ’80s cinema. A large part of that lack of advance word was something that would become cornerstone to Netflix’s ambitions going forward: the Duffer Brothers, who created the show, were virtual unknowns. By the time they started pitching Stranger Things with the help of director/producer Shawn Levy, they had two credits to their name. The first was a movie titled Hidden, which they wrote and directed, and starred Alexander Skarsgard, Andrea Riseborough, and Emily Alyn Lind. That got a grand total of six critics reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and a worldwide gross of $310,273. The other credit was writing four episodes of Fox’s Wayward Pines, a show you likely forgot ever existed.

This is jumping ahead, but what Netflix (slowly) learned is you can take unseasoned showrunners with little to no practical experience, pair them with someone more experienced (in this case Levy) for new IP, and the risk is relatively low. If it fails, well, the showrunners weren’t experienced, no harm done. If it works? Bonanza!

Like many other Netflix hits that became cultural phenomena (see Squid Game and KPop Demon Hunters for later examples of this), the success of Stranger Things was organic, spurred on by word of mouth that worked despite the streamer’s vaunted algorithm, not because of it. The show was well reviewed for its pastiche of ’80s tropes and charming child cast that included stand-out performances including Millie Bobby Brown as the psychic Eleven, Gaten Matarazzo as the nerd genius Dustin, Caleb McLaughlin as the slingshot-carrying Lucas, and Finn Wolfhard as group leader Mike. Also lauded were the adult performances by Ryder as strung-out mom Joyce and David Harbour in a breakout role as the gruff-with-a-heart-of-gold chief of police Jim Hopper.

It’s hard to tell how much of a success Stranger Things was in its freshman season, as Netflix did not at the time release viewing stats, but one independent look showed that it grabbed 14.07 million adults in the 18-49 demo. That put it behind seasons of Fuller House and Orange Is the New Black, and is nowhere near the December 25, 2025, drop of Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 lifting Netflix to (according to its own reports) the best Christmas Day viewership ever. But the point is, people were watching, and more importantly telling other people to watch.

Like the best cultural modifiers, what Stranger Things was doing in Season 1 wasn’t new necessarily, but it was remixing previous ideas in the blender with a heavy grounding of fresh, engaging characters with real emotional journeys. The Duffer Brothers pulled on everything from Amblin movies to Stephen King and Dungeons & Dragons to create a TV series that paid respect to its forebears while never feeling like an Easter egg hunt. The kids in the show loved pop culture of the time. They were nerds. So of course they saw an adventure with a terrifying monster they called the Demogorgon and a little girl straight out of Firestarter through their own experience with movies and books. That’s how they processed the world, and so, as viewers, did we.

Season 2, meanwhile, for all its high points, showed a series grappling with its own success. Additional characters, a more complicated mythology, and a clear attempt to replicate the surprise hit of Season 1 moved the action from Amblin adventures of the early ’80s to action movies of the mid-’80s. That season also included what seemed to be a half-baked attempt to create a backdoor pilot for a spinoff with the much maligned “The Lost Sister” episode featuring Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), a punk psychic kid who, like Eleven, had escaped from experiments at Hawkins Lab.

And on the Netflix end, the monetizing of Stranger Things had begun. While Marvel had its own products, it’s hard to imagine fans going gaga for Orange Is the New Black jumpsuits, or Bloodline… Well, nothing from Bloodline. Stranger Things, on the other hand, with its younger audience obsessed with the mythology of the series, and relating hard to the charming young cast (including popular canon and non-canon ‘ships), was primed for a product bonanza. That aspect is technically external to the show, but it’s impossible to separate subsequent seasons' new costumes, new characters, and new settings – Scoops Ahoy ice cream? The Starcourt Mall? Even the final season’s WSQK inspiring its own finale-spoiling LEGO set – from a mountain of Funko POP!s. Theme park horror houses on Halloween, pop-up experiences, comic books and novels, shirts and jackets and hats at Hot Topic, a frickin’ Broadway show… Even the just-opened Netflix Houses would not have happened if the streamer hadn’t been able to use Stranger Things as a test case for how to create alternate monetary streams other than measly streaming subscriptions.

None of that is of concern to the viewer, but as noted it runs parallel to the spiraling scale of the TV series. Each subsequent season, by its very nature, needed to up the ante of the spectacle from the previous one. A singular Demogorgon led to Demodogs led to the massive goop pile of the Mind Flayer, and finally the reveal of Henry Creel/Vecna/One (Jamie Campbell Bower), the big bad behind the curtain the whole time (sort of). But at least up until the final season, the show never lost track of these being normal kids in impossible situations (even as the kids grew up, got married, and had kids of their own in the real world).

And that’s likely part of the problem fans have been having with these concluding episodes, other than the mere idea that a finale is nearly impossible to stick the landing for, and has only rarely been universally lauded. The issue is that Stranger Things began by lovingly homaging the media that came before it in a way that felt fresh and new, even when it was set decades in the past. Meanwhile, the final season of Stranger Things is paying tribute to… Stranger Things. Yes, there are still plenty of references throughout, from Return of the Jedi to Labyrinth and everything in between. But unlike the more spontaneous-feeling nods of previous seasons, Season 5’s references mostly feel Scary Movie-level, done out of due diligence and to provide fodder for TikTok sleuths, rather than because the characters in the show love these things.

Nowhere is this navel-gazing more prevalent than in the preponderance of flashback scenes in the finale, “The Rightside Up.” There’s an argument to be made that they are necessary, but they are also a reminder of better, more fondly remembered seasons. It’s hard to, for example, watch the depressed, deadly serious Hopper of the finale right next to a flashback of the funny, dancing Hopper of Season 2. Who wouldn’t want to watch the latter over the former?

Is this bad? Or wrong? As I’ve been saying, Stranger Things came from nothing, and became everything. So perhaps a victory lap for the show that helped transform Netflix is well deserved.

And since Stranger Things debuted, Netflix has been less successful at creating the next Stranger Things (see Locke & Key, Fate: The Winx Saga, Shadow & Bone and others) than continuing to cultivate the Stranger Things fandom and play catch-up when something unexpected breaks out. The one exception to this rule is likely Wednesday, which is based on a pre-existing property (The Addams Family), features a big star (Jenna Ortega) and comes from showrunners with a history of hits behind them. Since Netflix has been unable to recreate Stranger Things through magic or science, perhaps that’s the streamer’s way forward: ignore the “newbie” rule established by the Duffers, and instead go for something with more potential reward. Or perhaps the one cool trick Netflix will try is buying HBO and letting them handle this going forward, while the house that red envelopes built will focus on reality show spinoffs (The Wire: The Challenge, anyone?).

Regardless of what Netflix does next – part of that strategy includes the animated series Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, and at least one live-action spinoff, so they’re not letting go of the series quite yet – Stranger Things helped teach the streamer how to be a cultural behemoth, a giant spider monster that crawls through the desert of content to consume everything in its wake. And 10 years ago, when we first found a bunch of kids playing D&D in Mike Wheeler’s basement, who could have imagined that? After all, Stranger Things was just “that Winona Ryder show.”

For any LEGO newcomer – any adult who's looking for an entry point into this incredible hobby – you can't go wrong with one of the car replicas. The newest models incorporate a bit of everything – a little Technic for the car's frame; an interlocking web of rods, studs, and gears for the steering, and some traditional bricks for the body and finish. It's a crash course on all LEGO fundamentals – all the innovative building techniques that the company has mainstreamed and popularized over the past decade.

As an upside, you'll also end up with something that "works." The best thing about LEGO vehicles is that they're fairly durable and contain numerous practical features – steering, of course, but also things like gear shifts, suspension, retractable headlights, and moving peripheral elements. When you're ready to move beyond LEGO, many of these best LEGO alternatives boast working features too.

Whether you're into classic cars from the old days or the iconic vehicles from Hollywood blockbusters (like this recreation of the Batmobile from the 1966 Adam West-led show), IGN has you covered. Here are all the best LEGO car sets that you can buy in 2026.

Best LEGO Car Sets

Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport Hypercar

LEGO Technic BMW M 1000 RR

LEGO Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole

Optimus Prime

Bumblebee

Back to the Future Time Machine

Batman: The Classic TV Series Batmobile

Mercedes-Benz G 500 PROFESSIONAL Line

McLaren P1

LEGO Technic Ferrari Daytona SP3