The article by Hollywoodreporter.com detailed the success of the new season of Stranger Things has done in the streams of the show on Netflix. At the time of the article only Squid games has more views for an English-language show, but the article states that the show will soon be close to or pass by Squid games. The article details the success that really sparked because of the last two episodes which just came out this weekend, they state that between June 27th through July 3rd the last two episodes combined for around 221 million hours out of the 301.28 million hours for the timeframe. With this type of success in the first couple of days after the release the article predicts that the show will pass the Korean hit or at least come very close to it. Finally, the article details some of the other record-breaking statics that Stranger Things Season 4 has done like the biggest debut weekend for a Netflix series and Nielsen’s highest viewing weekend tally.
After reading the article I found myself thinking well what is next for Stranger Things and their franchise. As a fan of Stranger Things, I have found each season to only get better and better with not only show performance but the way that the show and the characters have grown as a whole. The fact is that others agree with this take, in an CBR article detailing Netflix’s top 10 most watched shows Season 2 and 3 both rank top 10 with Season 2 receiving 427 million hours and Season 3 receiving 582 million hours. With the way that Season 4 is performing on top of prior success, the fanbase asks can they perform for the next season with my answer being yes, they can. At the end of the first 7 episodes the series was at 930.32 million views which shows an established fan base, but then to have 221 million hours in the first five days for two episodes it shows people are wanting more of the show. With even more context the season left us with a lot of questions with most of the main characters like Will, Eleven, Eddy, and even Vecna and these questions just spread like wildfire to get others attention to then pull them into the show as a whole causing even more viewers for the show. So, with this information of how the show already has a stronger built-up fanbase and the fact that the audience was left with so many questions the upcoming season I believe has a chance to do better than this season with the hype it is already receiving.
Article Link: ‘Stranger Things 4’ Passes the Billion-Hour Viewing Mark – The Hollywood Reporter July 5th, 2022
Additional Source: Netflix Viewers Have Watched Over a Billion Hours of Stranger Things (cbr.com)