Lots of people are still watching Stranger Things

After four seasons, people are still tuning into Eleven and the gang as Netflix's flagship series breaks its viewership records.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  December 2, 2025 | 10:07pm
Courtesy of Netflix
TV News Stranger Things
Lots of people are still watching Stranger Things

People love their Stranger Things, and despite the show being off the air since 2022, Netflix’s flagship series is enjoying what the streamer declared the biggest premiere-week viewership for an English-language Netflix series ever. That’s a lot of qualifiers for a lot of viewers. Netflix reports that the first five days of Stranger Things season five amassed 59.6 million views worldwide. Variety notes that’s a 171% increase from season four, which only netted 22 million views—though that was in three days, not five. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder for Eggos.

Of course, these aren’t numbers from an independent tabulator. The numbers come from Netflix, which stands to benefit from keeping an expensive show high in its top 10 carousel. Right now, in a first for Netflix, all five seasons of the show are on the streamer’s global top 10, surrounding Kevin Hart’s new stand-up special, Acting My Age, the second-most-watched show on Netflix worldwide. Honestly, we thought Hart only did gambling commercials these days, but he racked up 10.3 million hours this week, which seems like a lot until you consider Stranger Things 5 had 284 million. However, if an hour-long comedy special earned that many hours of viewership, we’d be very concerned about the state of the global psyche or Netflix’s process.

Nevertheless, the self-report confirms what many of us long assumed: Lots of people are still watching Stranger Things, despite how much it also seems like people are complaining about it. Still, it’s not the best premiere-week viewership ever. That title belongs to Squid Game seasons two and three.

 
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