The opening weekend of the return of the sci-fi/fantasy shows that viewers were missing their Hawkins fix.
'Stranger Things' season four, volume one has usurped 'Bridgerton' and become the most-watched English-speaking Netflix series over its opening weekend.
The long-awaited return of the Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder and Sadie Sink series rocketed into the number one spot last weekend, with a record-breaking 286.79 million hours viewed worldwide. In doing so, it became the biggest premiere weekend for an English language TV series (a record that was previously held by 'Bridgerton').
The streamer noted that 'Stranger Things' performed 50% better than 'Bridgerton' season two's record-breaking opening weekend back in March, which racked up 193 million hours from viewers. Clearly, nearly a three-year wait since our last trip to Hawkins was enough for fans to stream all seven episodes over the course of three days.
However, there's still plenty of hours for the sci-fi title to claim, should it wish to completely de-throne the Shona Rhimes period drama. So far, both 'Bridgerton' season one and two have claimed the English-language top spots with 625+ million and 656+ million apiece viewed in their first month. 'Stranger things' season three takes up third place with 582+ million.
Going off of the latest Netflix figures, the difference between English and non-English language statistics is quite staggering. Should either series want to claim the overall top spot on the streaming service, they'll have to beat out 'Squid Game' season one, which currently has over 1.65+ billion views worldwide. Spanish series 'Money Heist' parts four and five claim the second and third spots with 619+ million and 792+ million each.
The newest season of 'Stranger Things' appearing in the Top 10s of 93 countries across the world just goes to show that there's still a lot of interest in the adventure series. Full of '80s nostalgia, mixed with an intriguing storyline, horror and comedy elements, killer music, as well as strong performances pretty much across the board from the young and older talent, Netflix will find it hard to say goodbye to the franchise once season five hits at some point in the future.
For now though, we'll have to wait until July 1 when volume two of season four, containing just two episodes (one of which is two and a half hours long), hits screens.
