Netflix show lands record-breaking debut
Creators said the massive viewership is ‘more than we could have ever dreamed’
Netflix has seen its biggest premiere week ever for an English-language series with the season five release of Stranger Things.
Volume one of the beloved show’s fifth and final season broke the record last week by amassing 59.6 million views and securing the top spot on the English TV list, Netflix announced Tuesday.
“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’s creators, Ross and Matt Duffer, said in a statement.
“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 massive numbers beat out the previous premiere-week record held by season one of Wednesday, which accumulated about 56 million views in its first four days in 2022. It also marks the third-best premiere overall, only falling behind seasons two and three of the Korean show Squid Game. The record for the largest premiere-week record ever still belongs to Squid Game’s second season, which gathered 68 million views.
Stranger Things made the top 10 shows in all 93 countries that the streaming platform tracks last week, reaching the top spot in 90 of them.
The show also took over half of the top 10 shows on the platform last week as anticipation grew for the new installment, making another first-time occasion for an English series.
Stranger Things’ first four seasons have now garnered over 1.2 billion combined views since their premiere, according to Netflix.
The sci-fi show, which has garnered a worldwide fanbase since its premiere in 2016, will release the next three episodes on Christmas Day. The roughly two-hour finale will arrive on Netflix and in more than 500 theaters on New Year’s Eve.
Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo have led the show since its debut. Actors Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Winona Ryder, and David Harbour also star in the series. Sadie Sink and Maya Hawke have remained fan-favorites since they joined in seasons two and three, respectively.
The show is set in the 1980s and follows residents of the fictional small town of Hawkins, Indiana, after a girl arrives from an alternate dimension called the Upside Down.
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