‘Stranger Things’ is close to breaking the 78-day top 10 streak set by ‘Squid Game’ and ‘The Queen’s … [+] Gambit.”
Of course, Stranger Things is a hit show with a massive audience. But come Monday morning, the beloved series will be above all other shows on NetflixNFLX
as top dog in at least one category – bigger than Tiger King, bigger than The Queen’s Gambit and (yes) bigger than Squid Game.
You may have noticed last week that the fourth season of Stranger Things had dropped to second place in the weekly Netflix popularity rankings. Virgin River’s fourth season took over the top spot with 105.44 million hours watched. But Stranger Things – in its ninth week on the Netflix charts – really wasn’t far behind with 74.99 million hours. Which means that this late into its fourth season run, it’s still posting numbers within earshot of the #1 spot.
That’s good news for Stranger Things, as the show needs to continue its legendary momentum to set a pretty big milestone on Netflix, breaking a record set by both Squid Game and The Queen’s Gambit. In total, Squid Game spent 79 days in the top 10 charts last year, with 78 of those days being consecutive – that’s the record. And Squid Game shares this streak with The Queen’s Gambit, which saw its 78-day streak stretch between late 2020 and early 2021.
But both of those shows had fallen further down the daily charts than Stranger Things has after 69 days of eligibility. Yesterday actually marked the lowest viewing yet for Stranger Things on the daily top 10 charts… at number three. That means the show had yet to drop out of the top two spots after 67 consecutive days on the charts. It is outstanding. Squid Game, for example, fell below second place after 47 days. Queen’s Gambit’s streak only lasted 40 days. And Tiger King? Only 29 days. So if Stranger Things stays hot for just ten more days, it will easily break the 78-day record.
But does that make Stranger Things the biggest show ever on Netflix? Maybe not. While Stranger Things may end up having a longer streak on the daily charts, it seems like Squid Game will continue to rise above the rest. In total, the fourth season of Stranger Things has watched 1.627 billion hours – which is now the second highest total since Netflix started publishing Top 10 statistics. The top spot belongs to the first season of Squid Game, with 2.29 billion hours.
Additionally, the total is likely much higher for Squid Game, as Netflix only reports weekly viewership if a show ranks as one of the top 10 shows of the given week. Which means the program has probably recorded close to 3 billion hours at this point.
But if we limit the total viewing time to the moments where the shows appear in the top 10, then Stranger Things still has a chance to break the record. That seems unlikely, however, as the first season of Squid Game accumulated 1.903 billion hours in its first six weeks of worldwide dominance – while the fourth season of Stranger Things only mustered 1.261 billion. While it easily makes Stranger Things the most dominant English-language show on Netflix, Squid Game still stands above the rest.
