Netflix Reports Viewership for Stranger Things Season 5 Finale and Overall Performance
Netflix recorded its highest-ever New Year's Day viewership, an achievement partially attributed to the release of the two-hour finale of Stranger Things Season 5. While specific New Year's Day viewing figures were not disclosed by the streamer, the series delivered 31.5 million views for the week ending December 29. This period included over four days of availability for the finale and seven days for the preceding seven episodes.
Stranger Things Enters Most Popular List
With all episodes considered, Stranger Things Season 5 has secured the No. 9 position on Netflix's Most Popular English TV list, accumulating 105.7 million total views.
Netflix employs a specific methodology for calculating views for split seasons. Consumption for each batch of episodes is measured over their initial 91 days of release. For Stranger Things Season 5, views for Vol. 1 were counted until February 24, Vol. 2 until March 25, and the finale until March 31. Weekly reported views during these windows are based on the number of available episodes: four from November 26 to December 24, seven from December 25 to December 31, and eight thereafter.
The Most Popular list calculates total viewing by dividing it by the season's full runtime. Due to the complex nature of the split-season methodology, the reported views for Stranger Things Season 5 on the Most Popular list, where Stranger Things Season 4 is ranked No. 3, cannot be independently verified. A simplified calculation using publicly released data suggests an estimated 119 million views to date, though this figure may contain overcounting.
Additionally, over 1.1 million individuals watched the series finale in theaters on December 31 and January 1.
Weekly Performance of Stranger Things and Other Titles
Stranger Things Season 5 led the weekly Top 10 English TV list with 31.5 million views. Other seasons of the series also appeared on the list:
- Season 1: No. 3 with 7.6 million views
- Season 2: No. 5 with 5.5 million views
- Season 3: No. 7 with 5 million views
- Season 4: No. 8 with 4.8 million views
This marks the sixth consecutive week that all seasons of Stranger Things have been present on the Top 10 list.
In other English TV rankings:
- Harlan Coben's limited mystery series Run Away debuted at No. 2 with 12.7 million views.
- Emily in Paris Season 5 ranked No. 4 with 7.4 million views, preceding its Season 6 renewal.
- Ricky Gervais's special, Mortality, premiered at No. 6 with 5.1 million views.
On the film side, the Korean disaster movie The Great Flood topped the non-English film list for the second consecutive week with 11.1 million views. After three weeks of release, it entered the Most Popular non-English film list at No. 7 with a total of 72.1 million views.