“Stranger Things” ended with a ratings splash, with its finale catapulting Season 5 to become Netflix’s 9th most English-language series ever.
After the Thanksgiving and Christmas releases of “Stranger Things 5” drew impressive audiences, the New Year’s Eve debut of the series finale boosted the season to tally up 31.5 million views during the week of Dec. 29, landing, as expected, as the streamer’s most-watched TV show of the week.
With 105.7 million total views combined since its initial Volume 1 drop on Nov. 26, “Stranger Things 5” entered into Netflix’s most popular list of all time in the No. 9 spot, behind “Bridgerton” Season 3 and ahead of “The Night Agent” Season 1.
Notably, the finale’s debut also boosted Netflix to score its most views on New Year’s Day to date, a feat achieved on Christmas Day thanks to the “Stranger Things 5” Volume 2 drop and the two NFL Christmas Day games.
That streaming viewership doesn’t account for the fan base that opted to watch the two-hour finale in theaters during its short viewing window from Dec. 31, 2025 at 5 p.m. through Jan. 1, 2026, which proved to be a major success at the box office. The finale scored $25 million at the box office over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in 600 theaters, according to early industry estimates.
When “Stranger Things” debuted its first drop of Season 5 on Nov. 26, the four-episode Volume 1 scored a whopping 59.6 million views in its first five days on Netflix, marking the biggest premiere week for an English-language show in the streamer’s history.
Given that Netflix calculates views by dividing hours viewed by runtime, the subsequent drops were always bound to see a smaller view count given they would be divided by the runtime of seven or eight episodes, rather than just four. That said, “Stranger Things 5″ Volume 2 still earned an impressive 34.5 million views during the week of Dec. 22 following its three-episode drop on Christmas.
Like most weeks during the “Stranger Things 5” rollout, all past seasons of “Stranger Things” made their way into Netflix’s top 10 most-watched English-langauge TV list, though it was Harlan Coben’s “Run Away” that took the No. 2 spot behind “Stranger Things 5” with 12.7 million views. “Emily in Paris” Season 5 took the No. 4 spot with 7.4 million views, behind the first season of “Stranger Things.”
