‘Stranger Things 5’ Hits 34.5 Million Views After Volume 2 Drops, Helping Netflix to Its Best Christmas Viewership Ever

Netflix reports that it achueved its highest Christmas Day viewership of all time this year, with the second volume of “Stranger Things” leading the charge.

While an exact viewership total for Dec. 25 was not provided — and while that total would also include Netflix’s two NFL games and other holiday viewing — “Stranger Things” Season 5 was the most-watched title of the day worldwide thanks to the release of three new episodes. Those episodes also helped Season 5 to a total of 34.5 million views during the week of Dec. 22-28. That’s the season’s second-best weekly total after its debut with 59.6 million views in November, which was Netflix’s best-ever opening week for an English-language title.

It should be noted that Netflix does not separate viewership of each volume when it reports the Top 10; while the 59.6 million-hour debut after Thanksgiving represented the total number of viewing hours divided by the runtime of the first four episodes, this week’s 34.5 million views were calculated based on all seven available episodes. Therefore, it isn’t possible to know whether Volume 1 or Volume 2 had a bigger debut.

There is still one episode left of “Stranger Things” Season 5. In a surprising move from Netflix, the series finale will debut in movie theaters on New Year’s Eve with a concurrent release on the streamer.

It can be expected that “Stranger Things” Season 5 will soon join Netflix’s list of its most popular English-language TV titles of all time given the new entry’s strong performance thus far. The season isn’t yet eligible for that list given the upcoming finale, but the Dec. 31 release will then begin the 91-day clock through which it will be able to accrue viewership that counts towards the chart.

Naturally, “Stranger Things” was the most-watched title on Netflix for the week, closely followed by “The Great Flood,” the South Korean film that led the non-English-language movies chart. Also notable was “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch” at the top of the English-language movies chart with 16.5 million views.

Back on the English-language TV chart, Season 5 of “Emily in Paris” was No. 2 with 13.3 million views in its second week on the chart, followed by the Dave Chappelle special “The Unstoppable…” with 9.2 million views, also in its second week. “Man Vs. Baby” took No. 4 with 7.8 million views in its third week. Much of the rest of the chart was taken up by previous seasons of “Stranger Things”: Season 1 was No. 5 with 4.8 million views, Season 4 was No. 6 with 4.1 million and Seasons 3 and 2 were No. 8 and No. 9 with 3.6 million apiece.

Sandwiched in between “Stranger Things” seasons was “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” with 3.7 million views in its fourth week. At the bottom of the chart was “Fireplace for Your Home: Crackling Birchwood Fireplace” with 3.2 million views.

See the Netflix Top 10 for Dec. 22-28 below, beginning with English-language TV and movies and followed by non-English-language TV and movies.