The long-awaited return of Stranger Things near the end of 2025 has brought the blockbuster sci-fi title roaring back into the top ranks of original streaming series viewership.
Per Luminate Streaming Viewership (M), in just six full weeks of availability (including the first week of January 2026), Stranger Things’ fifth and final season accrued more minutes of viewing in the U.S. than almost all other SVOD original seasons released in 2025. The two exceptions: The Pitt S1 and Love Island USA S7 (with the latter’s total runtime about four times that of Stranger Things S5).
And while the new season is trailing its predecessor in terms of U.S. minutes watched thus far, Stranger Things S4 had a much longer runtime (almost three more hours) and S5 is not far behind in estimated views (21.4 million vs. S4’s 26 million) across six full weeks of release. (The series finale also screened in many movie theaters nationwide, likely somewhat cannibalizing its viewership on Netflix.)
In short, S5, like Stranger Things as a whole, is undeniably a gigantic hit, almost unmatched among streaming originals. But there is a key caveat that should be noted as the series draws to a close — and with it, an era of Netflix originals defined by its massive success.
That caveat: Stranger Things S5, like many a Netflix TV season, is seeing a steep decay curve in the wake of its massive initial viewership.
This often-seen pattern is likely why Netflix decided to release the season in batches: the first four episodes Thanksgiving week, three more on Christmas Day and the finale on New Year’s Eve. Viewership for the season behaved accordingly, with big spikes around the episode drops but also swift plunges in the days that followed.
This reduced viewership, it should be noted, is still massive relative to most other streaming originals — enough to keep S5 in SV(M)’s top 10 most-watched original seasons every week since its debut. However, it’s also worth noting that on one of those weeks, Stranger Things was outranked not only by the new season of Landman on Paramount+ but by two HBO Max originals recently licensed to Netflix (The Staircase and Love & Death).
Taken together, these series are indicative of the type of title now driving engagement on streaming: relatively low-cost shows more indebted to classic TV genres (true crime, Westerns, medical dramas) than blockbuster films.
Indeed, the comparison to Landman is especially instructive, as the Taylor Sheridan series seems poised to claim Stranger Things’ crown as most popular original streaming show in the U.S. When ranked in the aggregate (all seasons combined), Landman was second only to Stranger Things in 2025 viewing time among originals and actually surpassed it in estimated views (75 million vs. Stranger’s 65 million).
The Paramount+ title also boasts the advantage of the steady week-to-week engagement that a weekly episode rollout brings, a stark contrast to Stranger Things’ spikier viewership.
This type of sustained viewing time is perhaps the most coveted prize in streaming nowadays, as even Netflix contends with the engagement behemoths that are YouTube and social video (a key reason you’re seeing the Big Red N begin to invest in video podcasts).
And even if Netflix hasn’t yet backed down from the binge model altogether, the increasing use of batch rollouts for its biggest titles (Bridgerton S3 and Wednesday S2 received such releases as well) indicates its leadership must be conscious of the decay curve issue.
Furthermore, with Stranger Things’ nine-year run having bridged the gap between the peak TV and austerity eras of streaming, one wonders what’s in store for the future of Netflix originals. Would a weekly procedural be so inconceivable for the streamer these days?
To find out, you can keep track of Netflix’s new and upcoming titles with Luminate’s Film & TV platform, and check out Streaming Viewership (M) for more on the biggest hits in streaming.
