Netflix's Stranger Things 4 on Track to Become #1 English Original Series
The fourth season of Stranger Things has been available for almost two weeks on Netflix and the next batch of viewership data has been released by the streamer, indicating that it's a monster hit, as expected. According to Netflix' Top 10 website, Stranger Things 4 is now the #3 English Netflix TV series of all-time and the #5 Netflix TV series of all-time. Netflix's data is largely compromised of hours streamed for a series in its first 28 days, the window for which they use to gauge its success and when they believe most viewers will seek out the content.
As of this writing, the data for which encompasses the show's first 10 days of release, Stranger Things 4 has been streamed for 621.8 million hours, putting it just behind both seasons of Bridgerton which are in the top two spots. Bridgerton season 1 is in second place with 625.49 million hours viewers in its first 28 days while Bridgerton season 2 is #1 on the English charts with 656.26 million hours streamed. Considering Stranger Things 4 is just four million hours away from eclipsing Bridgerton season one, and about 35 million hours from passing season two, it seems like by this time next week you'll be reading about Stranger Things 4 being the most popular English-language series ever on Netflix.
Now there are the two shows in the Non-English television list that are well ahead of Stranger Things 4. Money Heist: Part 5 is currently the #2 series in the Non-English list with 792.23 million hours streamed. This season of the series is a special case however as its episodes, like Stranger Things 4, were split across two batches. According to their site Netflix tabulated the number based on viewership within the first 28 days for both batches of episodes, which they'll also seemingly do for Stranger Things 4 (perhaps an explanation for the extended run times this season).
Finally, the big kahuna, the series to beat, and all that stands in Stranger Things 4's way of being #1 is the runaway hit Squid Game. In its first 28 days of release Squid Game was streamed 1.650 billion hours, putting it at over double the viewership of the next closest title (Money Heist: Part 5) and making it the biggest hit in Netflix history. The next two weeks will likely see a steep decline as most Netflix viewership is frontloaded, fans love to binge everything at once naturally. Based on dips between weeks in other Netflix originals, we estimate that the first volume of episodes for Stranger Things 4 will conclude its 28 day window with about 900 million hours streamed, and that will be just in time for the final two episodes to premiere.
Could Stranger Things 4 dethrone Squid Game as the biggest Netflix series of all-time? It's possible, but if done it would not nearly be as impressive as the run that the South Korean original had in the fall of 2021. Squid Game's success came with all episodes dropping at once, and with its popularity spreading entirely by word of mouth. Stranger Things 4 on the other hand had the entire marketing apparatus of Netflix at its disposal and has even split itself into two batches of episodes, which will have their viewership tallied together for one final number.
If Stranger things 4 manages to nab 900 million hours streamed in its first 28 days as we predict, the second batch of episodes (which is only two more) will need to be streamed over 700 million hours in the first four weeks to exceed Squid Game. Based on what we know about the final episodes, they have supersized run times at 85 minutes and 139 minutes respectively, it would take a lot of streaming for Squid Game to get beaten, but it's certainly possible.
Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 is now streaming, while Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 will premiere on July 1.