Yahoo News ‘Stranger Things’ Smashes Nielsen Streaming Records With More Than 7.2 Billion Minutes Watched in One Week
Netflix’s hit series “Stranger Things” has broken the Nielsen streaming record for most-viewed program in a single week, according to the measurement company’s newly released streaming Top 10 records. The science fiction drama was viewed for 7.2 billion minutes between May 30 and June 5, which was Season 4 Volume 1’s first full week of availability, easily landing in the No. 1 position on the chart. Previously, “Tiger King” and “Ozark” were the only titles to have crossed 5 billion minutes viewed in one week, both reaching that milestone in March 2020.
The premiere weekend of Season 4 Volume 1 also landed at No. 1. Between the May 27 debut and the end of the viewing window on May 29, the series brought in 5.1 billion minutes viewed.
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Netflix’s self-reported numbers for the premiere weekend indicate that “Stranger Things” Season 4 Volume 1, which consists of seven episodes clocking in at roughly nine hours, was viewed for 286.8 million hours — or roughly 17.2 billion minutes. However, because Nielsen combines viewership of all available seasons, a more apt comparison would be Netflix’s reporting that between May 23 and May 29, Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4 were viewed for a combined 371.3 million hours — or 22.3 billion minutes — versus Nielsen’s 5.1 billion. Still, because Netflix measures viewing across all devices while Nielsen counts only TV viewing, a discrepancy remains.
The two episodes that make up “Stranger Things” Season 4 Volume 2, which run for approximately four hours, will arrive on Netflix on July 1.
The May 23-29 viewing window also marked the premiere of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney Plus, which landed at No. 3 with 1 billion minutes viewed in three days of availability. As previously reported, this was Disney +’s biggest premiere weekend ever. The latest entry into the Star Wars franchised was sandwiched between Netflix’s continually successful “The Lincoln Lawyer” (No. 2 with 1.2 billion minutes) and “Ozark” (No. 4 with 804 million minutes).
The May 30-June 5 window also included some notable premieres. Season 3 of “The Boys” on Amazon Prime Video launched on June 3, bringing the series to fourth place on the originals chart with 949 million minutes viewed. And HBO Max had its first-ever Nielsen entry with the May 30 streaming debut of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which took sixth place on the overall chart with 758 million minutes.
See Nielsen’s newest Top 10 streaming rankings below, with original streaming titles for May 23-29 first, followed by overall titles for the same window, then original and overall titles for May 30-June 5.
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