The conclusion of Stranger Things propelled the show into the prestigious league of Netflix series, at least in terms of its massive viewership. With a staggering 31.3 million views worldwide (calculated as total viewing hours divided by running time) for the week of Dec. 29-Jan. 4, season five of Stranger Things joined the streamer’s top 10 most-watched English-language series ever. The final season, with a total of 105.7 million views, secured its ninth-place position on the all-time list (as measured over a show’s first 13 weeks of release).
Netflix users collectively spent 325.6 million hours watching season five last week, not including those who opted to watch the final episode in movie theaters on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. The finale reportedly generated an estimated $20 million to $25 million in revenue for theater chains over those two days.
The 31.3 million views for Stranger Things 5 on Netflix represent a slight dip from the previous week, when episodes five through seven of the season premiered. This is due to the formula for calculating views – Netflix divides total hours watched by the runtime of every episode available that week. The finale extended season five’s runtime by almost 26%, so although total viewing time increased by 14% week to week (from 284.8 million hours), it wasn't enough to offset the increase in total runtime.
Stranger Things 5 will have ample time to climb Netflix’s all-time rankings. For those charts, the streamer counts viewing of a split season for 91 days after part of the season releases. In the case of Stranger Things, the first four episodes of season five (which premiered on Nov. 26) will have their viewing tallied through Feb. 24. The meter for part two, released on Dec. 25, will keep running through March 25, and views for the series finale will count through March 31.
As of publication time, Stranger Things 5 is just 300,000 views behind Bridgerton season three on the English-language top 10 all-time list and within 14 million views of fourth place (Wednesday season two with 119.3 million views).
