It’s official – the new season of Stranger Things is a monster hit. The show premiered on May 25 and pulled in the biggest numbers for a weekend ever on the service.
The original series pulled in a staggering 286.7 million hours viewed, according to Deadline. Those numbers smashed the previous record holder, Bridgerton season 2, which pulled in 193 million. As if that’s not enough, it’s the first season to reach the top of the charts in 83 countries as well.
It also reached the Top 10 in all 93 countries that Netflix keeps an eye on. The latest season isn’t the only one crowding the top of the charts, as the previous seasons are also in the top 5 in many countries.
The show is so popular that it even pulled Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” to the top of the iTunes charts. This season of the show varies from previous iterations with its unusual runtimes. The shortest episode clocks in at 63 minutes, while the longest – episode 7 – lasts an unusual 98 minutes.
The show returns on July 1 with two more episodes and it’s already been renewed for one more season. Actors Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy Wheeler, and Charlie Heaton, who portrays Jonathan Byers, recently spoke with Hypebeast about the new season, and how those longer runtimes are justified.
“To me, it is much bigger than previous seasons. The writing this year almost feels like it’s kind of harkening back to the first season, with the seriousness of it all, at least internally. The danger feels real again.”
Wheeler agreed with this. Sure, there are longer episodes, but everything is also so much more grandiose.
“It’s definitely bigger. Massive, and even just lengthwise, there’s way more of it. This season also answers a lot of the questions people have been asking about why things and how are happening in Hawkins, so we finally get an explanation.”
Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix now, with volume two of the fourth season arriving July 1.