The premiere of the final season of the series "Stranger Things" during the holidays surpassed itself, writes UNN with reference to Deadline.
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According to Nielsen's latest weekly report, the series recorded an impressive 8.46 billion minutes of viewing in the first week of Season 5, significantly outperforming virtually all other streaming series from November 24 to 30.
This is the highest weekly viewership figure in the history of streaming services, exceeding the previous one by more than 1 billion minutes, and a record already held by "Stranger Things," which garnered 7.2 billion minutes during the Season 4 premiere in 2022.
Nielsen does not break down viewership by season but reported that 57% of the total came from new Season 5 episodes, and 59% of viewers were adults aged 18 to 49.
Direct comparison with the previous season is difficult, the publication writes. Nevertheless, this figure is impressive, considering that it includes just over four days of availability of new episodes - and especially considering that only four episodes were released. Three years ago, seven episodes of "Stranger Things" Season 4 were released simultaneously, and the series reached a record weekly figure only in the first week after its premiere, from May 30 to June 5. In the first three days of Season 4, "Stranger Things" was watched for 5.14 billion minutes.
According to Nielsen, the hype around the final season began several weeks before the episodes premiered. "Stranger Things" again ranked 3rd in Nielsen's top ten in the week of November 3 with 921 million minutes of viewing, and the following week rose to first place with 1.3 billion. In the week before the Season 5 premiere, the series maintained its leadership status, accumulating a total of 1.6 billion minutes.
This sets the stage for huge success both at Christmas and New Year's Eve, when Netflix will begin airing the final episodes of the series. Although Nielsen reports come with a month's delay, Netflix will report overall data for the remaining Season 5 episodes in the coming weeks, as it did for the first four episodes.
Despite fierce competition, Paramount+ managed to attract attention with the third episode of Season 2 of the series "Landman," and the Netflix series "The Beast in Me" also achieved success. "Landman" took second place with 1.34 billion minutes of viewing, and "The Beast in Me" took third place with 1.06 billion minutes of viewing.
Interestingly, the 2011 series "Homeland" by "The Beast in Me" creator Howard Gordon also soared to first place among acquired films that week, garnering 855 million minutes of viewing after appearing on Netflix.
As always, it is at this time that classic Christmas movies annually begin to appear in the Nielsen ratings. The live-action film "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" became the leader, garnering 669 million minutes of viewing. The film "Home Alone" collected 499 million minutes of viewing, and "Elf" - 397 million minutes.