“Stranger Things” debuted its fifth and final season to a whopping 59.6 million views in its first five days on Netflix. Only four episodes in, and the Netflix behemoth has already set a record, securing the biggest premiere week for an English language show in the history of the streamer.
For comparison’s sake, the No. 10 most watched Netflix English-language series of all time — “Fool Me Once” — hit 98.2 million views in its first 91 days.
The show, which took a three-year break in between the debuts of its fourth and fifth installment, hit Netflix Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. It hit the No. 1 spot in 90 of the 93 countries that Netflix reports on for its regional Top 10 lists. Not only that, but the season hit the Top 10 list in every country Netflix tracks.
“The sheer number of fans who have already watched Volume 1 is staggering — the response has been more than we ever could have dreamed,” series creators the Duffer brothers said. “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!”
The return of “Stranger Things” was expected to have a massive debut viewership, with “Stranger Things 4” standing as the No. 3 most-watched English-language TV show on Netflix to date.
The impressive debut boosted “Stranger Things 5” to the top of Netflix’s most-watched TV list during the week of Nov. 24. Like last week, which saw all four past seasons of “Stranger Things” enter the top 10 TV list, earlier installments of the show made it into the top 10 list, with the first season reaching the No. 3 spot with 8.9 million views. It was followed by Season 4 in fifth place (6.1 million views), Season 2 in sixth place (5.6 million views) and Season 3 in eighth place (4.6 million views).
The first four seasons have now accumulated 1.2 billion combined views since they were released. The next three episodes will be released on Netflix Christmas Day, and the finale will premiere on both Netflix and in select theaters on New Year’s Eve. These two batches of episodes will premiere at 5 p.m. PT.
Only two shows that weren’t “Stranger Things” made the Netflix’s Top 5 list for the week when it came to English-language series. The first was Kevin Hart’s special “Acting My Age,” which came in second place with 9.2 million views, and the other was Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys’ “The Beast in Me,” which came in fourth place with 7.8 million views during the week.
“Stranger Things” wasn’t the only title to set a Netflix record. “KPop Demon Hunters” secured the No. 3 spot on the English film list with 10.4 million views, marking its 24th straight week in the Top 10. That’s the longest a Netflix film has ever stayed in the Top 10 list.
However, seasonal titles took the top spots on the English-language film list. “Jingle Bell Heist” saw 19.3 million views during the week, netting the Olivia Holt and Connor Swindells movie the top spot. It was followed in second place by romantic holiday movie “Champagne Problems,” which secured 14.4 million views in its second week. The animated kids movie “In Your Dreams” came in fourth place with 9.3 million views, and Guillermo del Toro’s critically-acclaimed “Frankenstein” came in fifth place with 7.3 million views.
As for the non-English language series list, the Korean rom-com “Dynamite Kiss” climbed to the No. 1 spot with 5.5 million views. The Japanese historical drama “Last Samurai Standing” followed in second place with 3.2 million views. Those were then followed by the Spanish limited thriller “The Crystal Cuckoo” (2.6 million views), Season 3 of the Argentinian comedy “Envious” (2.1 million views) and the Korean reality show “Three Idiots in Kenya” (1.9 million views).
Last but certainly not least was the non-English language movies list, which was led by the Indian rom-com “Sunny Sanskari ki Tulsi Kumari,” which had 2.9 million views during the week. The 2022 Norwegian thriller “Troll” jumped up to second place with 2.8 million views ahead of the premiere of “Troll 2” on Dec. 1. The top five list was then rounded out with Indian cinema, including the comedy-drama “Jolly LLB 3” (1.7 million views), the thriller “Aaryan (Tamil)” (1.5 million views) and the drama “Homebound” (1.3 million views).
