‘Stranger Things’ 5 Shatters Netflix Viewership Records

Stranger Things is back, and Volume 1 of Season 5 has arrived with the kind of impact everyone expected. It dropped globally on Netflix this past Thanksgiving Eve, and the excitement around it has been building for years.

After so many delays and a massive marketing push, the only real question was how big the numbers would be. Now that Netflix has shared the first week of viewing data, the results are huge.

According to Netflix, the new season became the number one TV show worldwide for the week of November 24 to November 30. It reached 284.2 million hours watched and pulled in 59.6 million views in that first week.

Netflix also says this marks the biggest premiere week ever for an English-language show on the platform. Honestly, it’s not surprising. The show has been promoted everywhere and fans have been waiting since Season 4 for the story to continue.

Netflix celebrated the launch with a statement full of energy, saying fans were tuning in from everywhere. In the company’s words, “Stranger Things fans everywhere set their dials to WSQK, The Squawk, tuning in to DJ Rockin’ Robin and the rest of the Hawkins crew as they continue their fight against Vecna for the fate of the world.”

The service went on to confirm that Season 5 opened with the biggest English-language premiere week in its history, reaching the Top 10 in all 93 tracked countries and hitting number one in 90 of them.

The Duffer Brothers also reacted to the early success, and they sounded thrilled by the response. They said, “The sheer number of fans who have already watched Volume 1 is staggering — the response has been more than we ever could have dreamed. The show is now a decade old, and seeing the fanbase not only endure but continue to grow has been incredibly rewarding for us, the actors, and the thousands of artists who helped bring this story to life. We truly cannot thank everyone enough, and we are beyond excited to share Volume 2 — there’s so much more to come!”

Netflix also pointed out that the series as a whole dominated half of the global Top 10 list during the week. All seasons made the chart again, showing just how much viewers are returning to past episodes.

Season 1 was especially strong, landing at number three with nearly nine million views that week alone. Netflix says that the first four seasons together have now reached more than 1.2 billion views since their original releases.

Fans won’t have to wait long for the story to continue. The next three episodes of Season 5 arrive on Christmas Day, and the final episode will drop on New Year’s Eve at 5 p.m. PT, both on Netflix and in select theaters.

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