Stranger Things Season 4 Has Achieved A Massive Record

Stranger Things Season 4 has reached a massive and pretty amazing record. It's not surprising considering the popularity of the Netflix series

By Charlene Badasie | Published

Stranger things season 4

Stranger Things has been an enormous hit for Netflix since its 2016 debut, with each season bringing in more and more viewers. Then after a long break, due to everything going on in the world, fans finally got to delve into Season 4. While it was totally worth the wait, no one could have predicted its record-setting popularity. Now, the streamer has revealed the Stranger Things Season 4 numbers to back up the hype.

Following the release of the season finale on July 1st, Stranger Things season 4 passed the billion-hour viewing mark worldwide within its first 28 days on the service. According to the streamer’s internal measurement system, episodes eight and nine accounted for around 220 million hours of the total. But it was the last two episodes that drew in another 301 million hours, taking the total to an impressive 1.15 billion hours viewed, Deadline reports.

This makes Stranger Things the first English language series to earn more than a billion hours of viewing time. Among all the Netflix originals, only Squid Game has a bigger viewing time in its first 28 days (1.65 billion hours). But with three weeks left to get more viewers for the final two episodes, season 4 will probably get close to or even surpass the Korean series. The next most-viewed series on the English list is Bridgerton season two which tallied up 656,260,000 hours in the same timeframe, The Hollywood Reporter says.

Stranger Things Season 4 has managed to break other Netflix records too. This includes having the biggest premiere weekend ever for an English-language television show on the platform, with 286.79 million hours viewed. Additionally, it was the most-watched season of English-language television in a single week on the streamer with 335.01 million hours viewed in the last seven days. The show also moved into the number three spot in the streamer’s Most Popular TV list just 10 days after its premiere, with 621.80 million hours viewed.

Stranger Things Season 4 begins eight months after the destructive Battle of Starcourt and is split into different plotlines. The first takes place in Hawkins, where several teenagers are killed in mysterious ways. It features Dustin, Max, Lucas and Erica, Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie Munson, the leader of the Hellfire Club – a Dungeons & Dragons group that includes Dustin and his friends. The second plotline sees Mike visiting Eleven, Will, and Jonathan at their new home in California. And the third follows Joyce Byers and Murray Bauman who learn that Jim Hopper may still be alive.

So far, Stranger Things Season 4 has received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of several cast members. While the visuals, action sequences, and the darker, more mature tone were also commended, some criticized it for being overstuffed due to the lengthier episode runtimes. According to the Duffer Brothers, who created the series, Season 4 has set the stage for the series’ curtain call at the end of season five. Although there are few details about what that will entail, the season finale certainly left fans with a lot of questions.