Stranger Things is running up that hill to break records for Netflix.
The streamer says the recently concluded fourth season of Stranger Things has been viewed for a whopping 1.15 billion hours during its first 28 days of release, per The Hollywood Reporter. That makes it only the second Netflix series to pass this threshold in a month after the hit South Korean show Squid Game, and the first English-language series to do so.
Stranger Things passed the 1 billion hour mark after the release of Vol. 2 of season four, which included the final two episodes — though it's worth noting that Netflix measures the series' popularity via hours viewed, and the fourth season was unusually long, ending with a two-and-a-half hour finale.
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Still, it's clear Stranger Things remains as big a hit as ever, racking up tons of social media buzz, breaking Nielsen records, and even helping Kate Bush earn over $2 million in royalties off her song "Running Up That Hill," which was featured prominently in the season. This couldn't have come at a better time for Netflix, which earlier this year saw its stock take a hit after it lost subscribers for the first time in 10 years, leading to multiple rounds of layoffs.
Unfortunately for Netflix, Stranger Things will end with its upcoming fifth season, which will probably be released sometime in 2024 and is expected to feature shorter episodes — though a spinoff, the plot of which hasn't been revealed, will follow.
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