6 Years Later, Netflix’s Hit Gothic Series Just Beat One of Their Biggest Shows After Millions of Views

Netflix‘s Top 10 TV shows has looked pretty consistent over the past six weeks. Hit shows like the limited series Hostage, plus the return of The Great British Baking Show, have remained in the weekly and daily Top 10 on the streamer. In addition to these however, Netflix’s play at sports entertainment has also revealed that’s where audiences are lingering, with new episodes of WWE Raw and the Canelo Álvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight making a name for themselves as well. There’s been one series that has hung around this entire time though, and it just set another Netflix record.

The success of Netflix’s hit gothic reboot Wednesday, a modern interpretation of The Addams Family, is not lost on anyone with a pulse. Even before the Season 2 of the hit show premiere, the first season had set the streamer’s ratings on fire and become the most-watched English language TV series in the history of Netflix. To date the only season of television watched more on Netflix than Wednesday Season 1 is Squid Game Season 1. With the latest new data from Netflix however, it’s become clear that Wednesday is shaping up to be a hit that rivals one of their other major titles, Stranger Things.

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Wednesday Season 2 Eclipses One of Stanger Things’ Best to Join Netflix All-Time Top 10

Prior to this week, Stranger Things Season 3 was seated at the #10 spot in the Netflix All-Time Top 10 TV shows, a list it has sat on since it premiered six years ago in 2019. Previously the series had 94.8 million views according to the streamer’s own metrics, a number that previously had it much higher on the list, only to be pushed further and further down after the premiere of shows like Bridgerton, DAHMER: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Adolescence.

Wednesday Season 2 has only marginally beaten out Stranger Things Season 3 to make the All-Time Top 10, with its viewership to date sitting at 95.4 million views, just 600k more than Stranger Things Season 3. Of note, Netflix’s tabulation of “views” is calculated based on how much a piece of content is watched in a 90 day period, meaning that Wednesday Season 2’s numbers will continue to rise. Since the final volume of episodes debuted on the platform, the series has only added more to its total. Come this time next week, Wednesday Season 2 may have climbed even higher up the list. As of this writing the series is well within striking distance of the next two titles on the list, Fool Me Once and The Night Agent: Season 1, which have 98.2 million views each.

When comparing the viewership of Wednesday Season 1 and Season 2 however, a dramatic disparity makes itself clear. As noted, Wednesday Season 1 remains Netflix’s biggest English-language TV series of all-time. The series tallied over 252 million views and had 1.7 billion “hours viewed” on Netflix. By comparison, Season 2 of the series has 63% fewer views total and nearly 1 billion fewer “hours viewed.”

It’s possible that the delay in new episodes, it took two years for the new season to be released, had some viewers lose interest, but in truth most Netflix shows see diminishing returns across new seasons. Even Squid Game, whose first season remains their most popular of all-time, saw additional seasons gain fewer viewership than the list. Squid Game Season 3 however, the lowest of the series, would still land in the #2 spot on the All-Time English-language TV list as its 144 million views is higher than both Stranger Things Season 4 (140.7 million) and Adolescence (142.6 million).

The only exception this observation of course is Stranger Things, with Stranger Things Season 4 still the #3 English-language show on the All-Time Top 10. It does beg the question however, will the delay between Season 4 of Stranger Things and the upcoming Season 5 see a dramatic drop in viewership? Or will the fans come back for the final story? The same question will no doubt be asked when Wednesday Season 3 finally gets off the ground, and luckily Netflix has already ordered it.

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