The exact date that Stray takes place 

These are absolutely mind-blowing levels of detail and research. I'm personally on Team Moon, only because we have no way of knowing if the TV broadcasts are current, and going by the moon puts us more in the future. I don't think it's a huge leap to think that broadcasts in the slums might just be old rebroadcasts of prior episodes. There may not even be a point to updated weather reports anymore. Thanks for putting in this work!

This is great, the fact that the day matches up with the moon phase makes me hope the devs did this on purpose when deciding when Stray takes place.

My 11 year old cat died literally the morning this game came out and I downloaded it! I still can't believe it. I woke up to play it and to find out my cat had been apparently stung by a scorpion during night (in my opinion, as I had just found one days before). She got paralysed, I won't even explain because I will start to cry... She appeared under a bed... paralysed... she couldn't breath well... her mouth went purple... the vets couldn't do anything... she died that morning in the veterinary. It is one of the saddest days of my entire life! I couldn't play the game for like a month, and when I did, I never finished it. Now I'm trying to finish it, one year later.

So many people took that huge number on the wall as a literal amount of days, but it being a unix timestamp makes so much sense, of course the Companions would use the MAIN way that time is calculated on a computer.

Thanks for letting me do the music for this video! Such a fun one. Also: Team Moon all the way. In the weather report the ceiling is open and it says it’s going to rain. Why would they care if it was raining while the city was closed? I will just ignore the fact that it was raining the night before when Stray is outside…

Something you didn't mention is the clocks. All of the clock faces in Stray have 16 hours rather than 12. If something happened to the earth that caused the rotational speed to change, then the moon phases would also be different than the one we know right now, making the "team moon's" claim no longer relevant.

My brother found your video on Stray's true ending, and we both fell in love with your style of editing. I'm surprised you don't have more subscribers! Well, you got one right now. ;)

This video is just a prime example of how rich and well made stray's world is that you can take what should be just basic set dressing and figure out the exact day the events of the game take place without it being obviously stated by any character

I think Oct 11 on the calendar is not correct because this calendar is outside the safe zoom of Robot. I think that is the last day where human lived or died during the pandemic so they could not tear off this calendar anymore. So we need to star with September.

Stray really stuck with me. I cried at the end. It was a beautiful, engaging game, and the story was so dark but meaningful! It’s up there with my favorite games of all time, none of which got me on an emotional level! I keep looking for games that have a similar story or feel. I’m still chasing that feeling. Games I’ve enjoyed that feel similar are portal 2, control, Witcher 3, horizon series, outer worlds, journey to a savage planet- I know the suggestions are all over the place because I’m trying to think of games that both capture engaging storylines, likable characters, colorful worlds, high emotional stakes and/or components of a puzzle structure… any further suggestions are welcome.

The amount of detail devs put in the game is amazing but the fact that you put that much effort in videos is even more amazing.

I imagined October 11 was the last day humans kept track of time, seeing as these calendars are found in the Dead City too. It subsequently has been hundreds of years since October 11. Side note: October 11 is "National Coming Out Day" in the US and the "International Day of the Girl Child" around the world

Probably team moon because the weather channel could be a replay or a recording. Moon seems a little more likely to me, but unless we get canon confirmation, you can totally be on the tv team and I'll support that :)

i just finished stray yesterday and ive been avoiding spoilers from reddit, youtube, and twitter ever since. now that i finished the game im very disappointed because it was such a cliff hanger and ive been searching for videos explaining the game ending. ive watched your 2 minute video as well, the one where you describe the true ending and revealing where stray's home is. im happy that stray got an ending (although is most likely a theory) where they got reunited with their cat friends. and oh, im a team moon. because who knows, the weather report could have been just a replay airing since forever and the moon is much more accurate imo. thank you for this video, you got another subscriber.

I’d watch this over Game Theory anyday. I commend this style of editing it really takes the viewers on a journey. It felt like you held our hand and took us on a research journey from your set up to revelation.

I love when the community comes together to solve gaming mysteries :) I may not be able to contribute much, but still fun to "discover" everything with you

Beginning of the video: Stray is in the not so distant future when a lot of things from our current life still exists End of video: Stray takes place over 1000 years into the future...

Moon because the weather report probably isn't accurately dated because who would be doing a weather report in a giant dome?

This is showing a true masterpiece in gamng. its not only a very briliant game, it also has so many to discover and find out. im glad such game developers still exist. thanks for this game!

Thank you. I have been following the progress of this game since it was "a game set in Kowloon Walled City, maybe where you play a cat." Between this video and "Stray's True Ending", you are one of the best fans.

Thanks so much for showing how easily the stray was reunited. And i guess he can show them they can come back in and not be strays any more.

As if I couldn’t have loved the game enough already, this just takes it to another level.

I'm gonna say I'll be on both teams. Because, within the walled city, time worked completely different there! Some of the robots lost track of time. So inside the city, it's Monday 11th, 2827. But when the citied opened (near the end of the game), the real-world date would be on October 11th-12th, 3127 on a Tuesday or Wednesday, since that's when the moon's phase actually occurred. We probably took a day at least to complete all of B-12's memories and go on missions before the grand reveal of the Sun.

Amazing video! This makes me wonder how the companion race is going to call this most special day in the future and how they’ll celebrate it. Maybe they’ll even start a whole new time and age after the cat and b12 freed them and led them into a bright future. I love this game and the heroes whose role you can take. It’s touching.

SD! incredible video. love all the attention to detail - literally. felt like i was along on a detective case. i gotta say im team: this is just far af in the future lmao

This video is so good! Like the editing, the use of the soundtrack ahhh so great! I found your channel through the last STRAY Video and this was just as cool. And yeah the cat is definetly employee of every month.

Im team weather report. Assuming both could be intentional options since the devs are god-tier… As a 3d artist myself, my first instinct would be to add a moon that simply looked cinematic. Not one that was accurate to the exact day of the game, especially if the “realistic” moon didn’t look cinematic, and was entirely covered in shadow. Of course both could be true. But weather report seems more intentional to me personally. Great video btw! I just beat the game for a 4th time (1st time since my triple play through on release)

Community like this is every dev's dream

Stray needs a sequel where she / he goes back and gets B-12 where B-12 can be repaired / restored!! We need to see the machines leave their underground bunker homes but we also need to see if any people / humans did survive!! I believe the year is the later one because the machines probably set the TV Stations to be on a loop from old footage to make them feel more connected to the world but to also remind them to keep some hope that they are indeed not alone or abandoned!!

Amazing Research, Cut, narration and content! Underrated af!!

Awesome video! I love it! But, about the 2511 thing; the clue was 'Time will tell'. If you look at the four clocks on the wall, the first one has a hand that points at 2. The second has one pointing at 5. And the last two both have hands point at 1.

you are absolutely underrated my man, congrats!

there are arguments for team TV and team moon, arguments against team TV is "What if its just an old TV broadcast?" but this one does seem a lot more intended than the moon, considering the developers had all the time to translate the language to show it was a Monday, unlike where they could have just pasted a PNG of the moon without realizing the significance. arguments against team moon is "The developers didn't intend that, they probably just looked for images of a moon and that one looked the coolest!" And to be fair they are right, its really up to you to decide if you want to go off what the developers wanted, or what ended up in the actual game. Personally I'm on team moon because there is really no way to prove it isn't and old recording, and there's more evidence against team Tv than "The developers didn't intend that!", but really its up to you to decide

sdk, I greatly appreciate the time and effort you've put in these videos. The edits are absolutely amazing and immersive. Thank you

This and your other Stray video are so amazingly well done. Thank you

That was the best explanation and analysis I have heard yet. Some people are insisting that it’s MILLIONS of years which is preposterous. If anyone ever saw “Time Machine”, everything should be dust with no working tech that far out, and the cats would be way more evolved than the game. My nerd self just chooses to place this at the same time as Titanfall, because it also suggests humanity long since abandoned Earth and the fate of Walled City 99 is the fate of all who didn’t push into colonizing space. But that’s my thought for fun since I am a fan of that and Stray ;) Seriously great video.

I wish I could live on the slums or midtown... so cozy, along with this cyberpunk feelings

I really enjoyed this analysis. Nice work! My only quibble would be that it says "2544875556 days." It specifies the units as days, not seconds. So the companions have been sentient for 6.8 million years. However, I much prefer the conclusion you came to. Somehow, it seems far more bleak to think that humans have been gone for nearly 6.8 million years.

It has been a year since i played this and this and the other video is what keeps popping up in my mind. Thank you for making an effort for us explaining these stuff

This is absolutely incredible. To dive in and expand upon the game lore like that is just amazing. I bet even the developers would scratch their heads at the question you posed, as well as be super impressed by the conclusion and logic it took to arrive at said conclusion.

Thanks! Team Moon over here. This and "Stray's true ending" are the perfect compliment after finishing this game! Excelent videos!

WHAT A PRODUCTION, please keep making videos in this format

I think I’m on team moon. The weather report is compelling but as others have mentioned theres no real reason to assume it’s current. Also, from a developer intention standpoint, its buried as an easter egg, meanwhile the moon is front and center at the start of the game.

wow, this is the most realistic timeline I've ever seen, good job

Im team moon. The tv could easily be a rerun edit: the tv is definitely a rerun You can see the open roof in one of the channels

wow this is incredibly detailed , im surprised all these details in the game actually match up with each other wow mindblowing

I am Team moon. not to discredit the weather report entirely, but as humans we do often predict weather things up to a week or more in advance. the moon, however - is solid science that matches the level of detail I'd expect from this world.

Wow, I am a huge fan of stray and I am grateful for every new piece of information. Thank you so much for all of your reasearch.

I honestly think that the weather report happened years ago and the TV was outdated that, it was set to 2827, and then the events of Stray take place in 3127.

I take comfort from the fact that, whatever mess humans make of the planet, cats will still be around long after we're gone.

Ok very interesting! But what about the text on the wall in Elliot's place that says: We were programmed to be slaves, but since 2544875556 days we have a soul. Hope one day the outsiders will find the exit of this hell. Momo.... That is 6,972,261.79726 so almost 7 million years. Also why the clocks have 16 hours is probably because the rotation of the earth has slowed down after that much time and days are now 32 hours long. Some more insight in this would be great because I am somewhat confused 😅

That was really fun to watch. I really liked your style and how you presented the whole narrative. A breath of fresh air for sure. Great job.

This is amazing.

I wrote the text below before watching the video, and I'm pretty happy how my theory worked so well. I just have a problem with the day, October 11th. The same day is also showed in the dead city, where for a longer time, no one was there so it cannot match the day in the slums, unless it's been exactly a year. And even then I'm still not quite sure, clocks don't work, unless each robot has built in clock on their own, or the time is just simply distorted for the companions. I actually think that it wasn't even that long ago before the humans went extinct. In the second scene, cats are sleeping on a piece of cardboard. They're outside. It can only be so much time, before that cardboard deteriorate. I think the day for the robots may only last 16 hours? They're inside the walled city and cannot know how much time passes outside so I think it's not a very good bet to assume that their sense of time is perfectly alined with the outside. Those clocks also don't work, any of them. The calendars are on October 11th only everywhere. I think the robots cannot have even a slightest idea how much time actually passes. They're pretty much constantly waiting. Waiting but on pretty much nothing, and while waiting even for us time seems to be passing so slowly. We think it must be at least an hour, but it turns out it's barely 15 minutes. I think that's what happens with the robots. They think, it was so, so many years since they have a consciousness, but with them not even having a shadow or sun position to look up on, they seem to not have any single clue what time actually there is. My bet is, it is much less, than we think.

In One part in the game it says at least that it was over 2.5 Billion days since they worked for the humen which are around 7.5 Million Years but that can't be right... - 1:03 yeah that was the moment I was talking about... Oh okay an coding thing... That is actually harder to understand for people outside of that area. - The plague was the reason why this city was build as far as I know. They needed it to protect themselves from it. But then it came inside it and killed everyone there. - one other problem is the Robots messure the time differently. The clocks are all 16 hours, not 12. Surel because of 16 bit but still they count differently. - I think both of them are wrong. Because the moon looked very close. Who knows what humanity did before all that to their planet and maybe also to the moon? Maybe the moon also came closer because of a rare effect that let it look bigger or it actually came closer. There is to much to be counting in it.

It makes little sense that it's october 11 now, because we see those calendars also in abandoned areas where there is nobody to rotate them. October 11 should be rather the date when something happened to all humans.

What you have done is absolutely incredible. I've never played Stray but i was so drawn to your video every second from start to finish. Bravo🎉.

As a few comments have said, I think Oct 11 is actually the last day humanity kept track of time, mostly because it's written in english and not their language. Still a wonderful video, and if I had to choose I'd say I'm team moon lol

I just beat the game today and afterwards I’m finding all these theories and secrets and I honestly feel like the actual gameplay is so minuscule compared to the all the close detail knowledge that can and has to be found. Now I must go back and replay all the big chapters and really pay attention to small things cause now I really want to know exact answers to questions and know all the gritty details. I must now thank you and hate you for setting me on this path lol. Time for another detailed play through and hopefully find a clue that no one has discovered yet.

Another clue to the year may be in the Zodiac. The dates October 11, 2827 and October 11, 3127 fall in the Chinese years of the Rabbit which.... in Vietnam, they call it the YEAR OF THE CAT (they replace the rabbit with the cat). Those two dates coincide with either the Weather report or moon phase theories!

Love your analysis!

You sir, are hereby Goat'd 🐐

I'm team moon, Its unlikely the weather report is of CURRENT date, rather an old recovering embedded within the TV channels. Makes more sense with that point to be October 11th 3127

I’m on team weather report ngl 😊 It’s so cool how the team added these little things into the game! I’m so exited for the movie.

Seeing all the Colanders set to October 11th (my Birthday), made the game even more special :D

Team Moon FTW - computer systems can have flaws, calendar systems can be reset, TV programmes can be replayed, but the orbit of the Moon and Earth around the sun is really unlikely to have been changed. Brilliant video - thank you.

You're a genius, you dug deep on this and it all adds up. I hope you get some response from the writers at some point.

the Plague was CORDYCEPS ;)

Dude you're a genius. Some big brain power must be there! Loved the video

This is the kind of Stray content I'm dying for, I love your video so much.

Another thing that confirms somewhat that this isn't super far into the future like some think is that there is something in Doc's home (I think, or another one of the companions homes, I can't remember exactly) that says the Earth in game is 4.54 billion years old - the Earth right now is 4.543 billion years exactly, and even 1000 years wouldn't have caused the 4.54 to bump up whatsoever, if that makes sense. So I think that, in the grand scheme of things, this is all pretty "recent" from the time that humans disappeared (present time in the game being close to or just after the 30th century).

Kudos! The only remaining thing to do is ask the developers for their opinion.

I love this!!!!Keep up the great work👍

This time a LOT of time, I wish I had it, but I love this video. Thank you for making it.

the weather report shows the forecast for tuesday and monday, and the "moon" date, lands on tuesday, so i'm both, team weather and moon, because knowing b12 (blue twelve), it wasn't a mistake nor a coincidence, the date is tuesday october 11th 3127

while i was playing this for the first time, i was thinking to myself "there cant be that much lore to this game" yet here is that said lore

And now the open question:At which point in our history did the alternate timeline with the flat screen free world bend of and all those crt kept staying? And there is an indefinite delay when Stray gets imprisoned. You could plug the moonphase shift in there.

Damn, that's the best video I've seen till now. Why is the time on the clocks 16 and not 12 though? Is it because binary for 16 is "10000"? I don't think that leads to anywhere, but thank you for the video, as many people probably would say, you are underrated, that storytelling and editing and everything is on another level! Good job!

Notice that the clocks have 16 hours. In the future, the earths rotation will slow to make the day 25 hours. How far in the future is this?

Wow, this was amazing. Another hint that the story takes place in the Northern Hemisphere is on the fruit basket: It's in French and uses the monetary symbol €, which is the Euro. So as of 2023, that would have to be France or Belgium as these are the only francophone countries in Europe which use the Euro (sure, there's Monaco too but that's very unlikely considering its size). So, considering that BlueTwelve Studio is based on Montpellier in France, I think it's pretty safe to say that it takes place in France. You might ask, hang on, why are the signs in English then, well consider that operating systems like UNIX and programming languages like BASIC all use English for their commands. Still I'm not saying that it is but this is just more evidence (not proof!).

Then it's easy to state team weather report as the right one! Because we can tell by the looks of the area neon signs and how the companions dress, that the setting is somewhere in Southeast Asia. That isn't too high up in the Northern Hemisphere.

Def team moon. And wow, this is so awesome that you put this together!

I think that the true date is October 11th, 2827, because I think that the moon being nearly full is just as likely to be an artistic device to create a prettier and more dramatic effect in beginning section as it is to be a deliberate clue. The moon being oriented as if in the northern hemisphere is probably because the game was created by people in the northern hemisphere.

Oh wait, the 20s walk away end from the start thing was your video! Thank you for that, I will sub now :)

And then there's team, "That ain't no Unix timestamp", which puts the game MILLIONS of years into the future.

The probability that the moon was a accident is much higher than them putting a whole ass weather forecast with the wrong date into it. Also, its 1000 years in the future, its possible that the moon cicle slowly changed over time.

i think it could be argued that the weather report was probably broadcasted repeatedly considering the lack of new media… i think there‘s some NPC who mentions that every newspaper in the slums is years if not decades old

Never subbed faster! amazing research truly shows how much love you put into it Thanks for the video

The fact that a CAT saved this entire city with the help of a few robots is absolutely crazy also team moon how do they have weather???

most underrated youtuber Keep it up and please make a lore vid on "one Endling: Extinction is Forever" ♥

Here's my thing, it would be the robots never saw what it looks like outside so 3127 would be the answer due to the the sky in the city is closed off to them for the rest of time. but that is my theory. love you video

One of the robots in the slum's bar mentions that he's reading a newspaper that is already two years old, because "at least it's something to read" or something like that, implying the slums is not receiving any updated or current information. This leads me to believe that there's no way the weather report is actually current. (This comment was written by team moon gang)

I always just had a feeling Oct 11 was starting last day of the pandemic and humans ultimate death. The last day robots were totally in charge of themselves. (And robots who uploaded themselves where time isn't a factor any longer(

The date is actually 2.3b years later, I have 2 reasons: 1. The zurks evolved from bacteria to monsters, animals like dogs and cats also took around 2.3b years to evolve into the species they are now, 2. In momos house is a painting close to the window where you enter it translates to the gravitational pull of the moon, how the moon is slowly driftin away and how the earth slows down (the days become longer because of this) we can see from the clocks that one day is now 32 hours with this information we can calculate that this is 2.3b years into the future (I got this information from another RU-vidr but I forgot the name, sorry)

This is the best video I've seen. Just... outright

gREAT, vid, I just started to play and was wondering about the game, awesome explanation.

team moon!!!!!! some people on yt are saying the humans are extint for more than 7 milions of years before stray fell into the city, why and how??

sdk: stray is hundreds of years in the future The Game Theorist: *I t s b e e n s e v e n m i l l i o n y e a r s*

u r underrated!

This is a delightful video! A lot of work obviously went into it and I really enjoyed it. Good work to you and everyone who contributed!