Stranger Things Season 5 Audience Score Slumps As Vol 2 is A Confirmed Hit

Netflix had quite the Christmas Day, bringing in viewers for both of its back-to-back NFL games and then closing out the big holiday with the premiere of Stranger Things Season 5 Part 2. The episodes launched at 8 PM EST on Christmas Day and quickly gained a foothold on the Netflix Top 10 of TV, but while the latest chapter is a big hit, it surprisingly debuted with a slumping Audience Score.

The second part of Stranger Things season 5 debuted on Christmas Day at the number 3 spot with a score of 585 (via FlixPatrol), putting it only behind Man Vs Baby (751) and Emily in Paris (811), and that was only from 8 PM and on. Today is in the no. 2 spot with 746, passing by Man vs Baby and closing in on Emily in Paris, which sits at 763. That’s a strong outing, but what is surprising is the Rotten Tomatoes audience score, which has dipped from season 4 and is currently at 73%.

That’s not bad by any stretch, but it is a significant dip from season 4’s 89% audience score. It’s also still behind season 3’s 86%, which is the previous low for the series to date. It will be interesting to see where it ends up shaking out once the season finale airs, as right now, the number of audience reviews is still well under the number of all the previous seasons. Those are all over 5000 reviews, while season 5 is only at over 2500. That suggests that many are possibly waiting until the season is fully complete before they submit their score.

Why Is Stranger Things Season 5 Not Rated As Highly As Previous Seasons?

The question then becomes, why is season 5 not rated as highly as previous seasons, at least according to Rotten Tomatoes, and there could be a few reasons. The most obvious is that we are still in the middle of the season, and while there are plenty of fans who rate shows during the season, there are also a host of others who want to see the whole season before submitting their rating. Season 4 was split into two parts, but season 5 is split into three parts, as the series finale will stream on New Year’s Eve. It will then be New Year’s Day before some of those completionist reviews are submitted.

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There’s also the fact that season 5 is a series finale and not just an ordinary season, so the bar is going to be substantially higher. Stranger Things is one of the biggest success stories of the streaming age, and thus has drawn a legion of fans who have been here for the whole journey. They want to not only see a great season of television, but also all of those hours and time with these characters rewarded with a great send-off, and you can’t blame them.

Plus, it’s always harder to deliver a series finale than a season finale, especially when the story involves so many characters. Season 5 has found a way to give many of their characters their chance in the spotlight thus far, and underutilized characters like Will have received long-overdue shine as well. Now the series has to go out with a bang and make sure it pays off the myriad of threads it’s set up along the way, but if anyone can do it, The Duffer Brothers can.

Stranger Things‘ series finale will stream on Netflix on New Year’s Eve.

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