The residents of Hawkins have done it again. Stranger Things has officially outdone itself, obliterating streaming records with the premiere of its final season over the Thanksgiving holiday. According to the latest Nielsen report for the week of November 24-30, the Netflix juggernaut recorded a staggering 8.46 billion viewing minutes. To put that into perspective, that number places it miles ahead of every other title on streaming, creating a gap of over 7 billion minutes between the number one spot and the number two contender.
This massive haul represents the highest weekly viewing total ever produced by a streaming title. The previous record holder? Stranger Things Season 4, which amassed 7.2 billion minutes back in 2022. What makes this feat even more impressive is the viewing context. While Season 4 had a full week to build momentum and dropped seven episodes at once, Season 5 achieved this new high in just over four days with only four episodes available. Nielsen noted that 57% of that traffic came specifically from the new Season 5 episodes, proving that the anticipation for the final chapter was at an all-time high.
While the Upside Down dominated the conversation, it wasn’t the only success story on the charts. Paramount+ made significant noise with Landman, which secured the number two spot on the overall list with 1.34 billion minutes viewed. It was followed by Netflix’s The Beast in Me, which rounded out the top three with 1.06 billion minutes. It was a tough week for anyone trying to compete with the Hawkins crew, but breaking the billion-minute mark is a solid victory for both titles amidst such heavy competition.
Interestingly, the “Netflix Effect” struck again for an older favorite. Homeland, the 2011 series, surged to the top of the Acquired titles chart after landing on the service. It raked in 855 million minutes viewed, proving that great drama finds new audiences regardless of when it first aired. On the lighter side, the holiday season officially arrived on the streaming charts as well. The live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas led the festive charge with 669 million minutes, while Home Alone and Elf also made their annual return to the rankings, signaling that viewers were ready to mix their sci-fi horror with a bit of holiday cheer.