Entertainment
23 December 2025
Link copied to clipboardWith Stranger Things in its fifth and final season, we wanted to celebrate the show as one of Netflix’s most beloved franchises, from record-breaking viewership and world expansion to its cultural and economic impact. Read on for some exciting fun facts by the numbers.
All Eyes on Hawkins
Across 5 seasons, 42 episodes, and over 2,500 minutes, Stranger Things built a world audiences kept coming back to. Seasons 1-4 have garnered more than 1.2B views to date, the most views for any Netflix show. In just four weeks, Season 5 Vol. 1 has already reached 102.6M views globally and all five seasons still remain in the Top 10 this week.
Fans have obsessed over countless iconic moments across all seasons, but two were the most popular with members: The most rewatched scenes in all of Stranger Things are: 1) Season 4: When Nancy falls into a trance/possession by Vecna (S4E7, 1:15:00) 2) Season 3: When Dustin and Suzie sing “Never Ending Story” duet (S3E8, 35:40).
Season 5, Vol. 1’s premiere week was the biggest in the history of Netflix for an English language show, amassing 59.6M views, hitting #1 in 90 countries and propelling Seasons 1-4 back into the Top 10 — marking the first time an English language Netflix show has had five seasons in the Top 10. Since the debut of the Netflix Top 10 in 2021, Stranger Things has made the Global Top 10 list 78 times and reached the Top 10 in all 93 countries tracked.
Cultural Impact That Leaves a Lasting Impression
As a result of the show’s massive popularity, each season has pierced the culture, creating new trends and even bringing back some from decades past.
Music is a supporting character in the series and it’s how many audiences first discovered, or rediscovered, sounds from the ‘80s. That’s been on full display with the release of Season 5, Vol. 1, which drew several classics from years past back into the zeitgeist not only around the world, but also with Gen Z.
According to Spotify, Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” (1980) saw a 1,250% increase in global Gen Z streams; Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” (1987) experienced an increase of 880% in global Gen Z streams; “Mr. Sandman” by The Chordettes (1954) had a spike of 625% in global streams; while ABBA’s “Fernando” (1976) saw a surge of 335% in global streams and 645% across Gen Z specifically. In fact, Spotify reports that 205,000 Stranger Things-themed playlists have been created globally since Season 1.
Last season, Max Mayfield’s favorite song, “Running Up That Hill” (1985) by Kate Bush, entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in its 38-year history. Additionally, Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” (1986) climbed into the UK Top 10 for the first time and drove 17.5M downloads of “Master of Puppets” in one week after it was featured in Season 4.
It’s not just music. Between the debuts of Season 1 in 2016 and Season 4 in 2022, the Dungeons & Dragons universe, which is a favorite of Eddie Munson and the Hellfire Club, saw a meteoric growth of 673%.
Chip’s Ahoy!’s Season 5 campaign highlighting their brand new Stranger Things-inspired cookie earned an impressive 11B impressions and Nike’s drop of Stranger Things-inspired Dunk Low sneakers sold out within 4 minutes on Stranger Things Day this year.
To date, over 3.16M copies of Stranger Things books, comics, and other publishing projects have been sold in the US alone since Season 1.
Stranger Things: The Experience has had 2B social impressions so far, with over 850K tickets sold across cities like Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, London, Paris, Brazil and Australia since it launched in 2022. Tickets are now on sale for Abu Dhabi and Mexico City locations.
On the awards front, Stranger Things has won over 70 awards from over 230 nominations worldwide including Emmys® for Outstanding Casting in a Drama Series and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. The prequel play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, also earned top honors when it took the stage in London in 2023 and launched on Broadway earlier this year. To date, the play has won four Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, and two UK Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.
Additionally, Netflix has demonstrated our ability to break out new talent in a way no other studio or network can. Millie Bobby Brown launched her career with Stranger Things and has since starred in multiple Netflix projects like The Electric State, Damsel, which is Netflix’s 10th Most Popular English movie of all time, and the Enola Holmes franchise, which returns for a third film next year. Across the cast, we’ve seen Instagram followings soar: Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo went from the thousands to the tens of millions. We’re even seeing new Season 5 characters like Jake Connelly (Derek) from Season 5 gain a massive following of fans across social media with Instagram followers nearing the 1M mark.
Fans Turn the World Upside Down
The anticipation leading up to the fifth and final season has been unmatched. Stranger Things 5 became our largest pre-launch marketing campaign for Netflix ever with 5.75B earned global social impressions. Our Rewatch Campaign generated 1.3B earned global social impressions during the month of October alone.
Plus, fun Easter eggs like Eleven’s missing poster phone number have gone viral online, resulting in 1M+ calls.
And speaking of fans, the reach of Stranger Things extended far beyond Hawkins and the Upside Down. For Season 5 so far, over 300K fans attended events in every corner of the world, spanning across 32 cities and 23 countries by the new year.
Highlights include the Los Angeles world premiere with over 100 talent and creators, and the "One Last Ride" cycling event with an estimated 50K fans. Global events delighted audiences with a massive parade in São Paulo (attended by 13K fans), immersive sets and cast appearances in Tokyo (47K registrations), a transit station turned Upside Down portal in Buenos Aires (20K fans), a holographic spectacle over Sydney Harbour, and a transformed airport hangar in Berlin for guests to experience a bike ride through iconic moments.
And we’re not done. End-of-year events will take place in London, Bangkok, Milan, Las Vegas and Madrid, and in theaters across the US and Canada, where fans will have the opportunity to watch The Finale together.
Beyond Cultural Impact, 'Stranger Things' Also Leaves an Indelible Economic Mark
Behind the scenes, thousands helped bring the world of Hawkins (and the Upside Down) to life. Over the course of five seasons, Stranger Things created over 8K production-related jobs across the United States and has contributed more than $1.4B to the US GDP.
In Georgia, where all five seasons of the series were primarily filmed, the series generated over $650M to the state’s GDP and was home to over 2K vendors that contributed to the series. California had the second-highest state-level contribution, with over $500M to the state’s GDP.
Volume 1 of Stranger Things 5 is streaming now — only on Netflix. Volume 2 debuts on Christmas Day at 5pm PT, followed by the series finale on New Year’s Eve at 5pm PT. Are you ready for the end?