Stranger Things Season 5 had a record-setting debut on Netflix.
In its first five days of streaming, the season racked up 59.6 million views. This is the highest premiere week viewership ever achieved by an English-language Netflix series, and the third-best overall after seasons 2 and 3 of the Korean sci-fi series “Squid Game.”
This is also a significant increase from the already impressive number of viewers for the season 4 premiere of “Stranger Things.” In 2022, the series opened with 287 million hours of viewing. At the time, Netflix ranked viewers by streaming time rather than number of views. This equates to approximately 22 million views. Therefore, while the season 5 debut represents an increase of approximately 171%, it is important to note that season 5’s views were counted over 5 days, whereas season 4’s tally was counted over 3 days.
This is the second highest viewership record for Season 5, even though the season just premiered. Last week, all four previous seasons of “Stranger Things” made it into Netflix’s top 10, amid heightened anticipation for new releases. This is the first time any series has had four different seasons on the chart. The Nov. 24-30 chart marked the first time the series had five different seasons on the chart. Season 5 ranked first, followed by Season 1 in 3rd place with 8.9 million views, Season 4 in 5th place with 6.1 million views, Season 2 in 6th place with 5.6 million views, and Season 3 in 8th place with 4.6 million views.
Netflix only released the first four episodes of season 5 last week. Three more episodes will debut on Christmas Day, followed by the series finale on New Year’s Eve. As such, Stranger Things is expected to remain on the charts for weeks, if not months, to come, with season 5 almost certain to enter Netflix’s list of the most popular English-language television titles of all time, with season 4 ranking third with 140.7 million views in its first 91 days.
Also notable in this week’s Netflix Top 10 were Kevin Hart’s special “Act My Age” debuting at number two with 9.2 million views, and “Jingle Bell Heist” debuting at number 1 on the movie chart with 19.3 million views.
Check out the Netflix Top 10 from November 24-30 below. First comes English TV and movies, followed by non-English shows and movies.
