Stranger Things breaks through Netflix’s 1 billion hours mark

Netflix’s signature series has accomplished a feat which only the wildly popular Squid Game has previously achieved.

Stranger Things has accomplished what only one other show has ever managed to do on Netflix.

The fourth season of the supernatural series just crossed the billion hours watched mark, a feat only the wildly popular Korean drama Squid Game has previously managed.

Stranger Things Volume 4 has now clocked 1.15 billion hours of viewership in the first 28 days since release. The final two episodes of the season were released this past Friday and that alone has watched for 301.2 million hours in its first three days.

Of course, this recent season’s nine episodes were super-sized, with the finale coming in at two hours and 22 minutes. That’s a lot of minutes compared to, for example, a six-episode comedy with 28-minute chapters.

Still, fair’s fair and it can’t be denied Stranger Things season four has captured the attention, love and obsessive tendencies of its fans in a way we haven’t seen since the first season.

The popularity of the series has even sent Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” back to number in the charts after it was heavily featured in a mid-season episode.

Fans are watching Stranger Things to the tune of a billion hours.

The speculation and fan theories around the final even caused Netflix to briefly crash in Australia in the moments after episodes eight and nine were released. Outage detection website DownDetector recorded a spike in reported issues just after 5pm AEST on Friday, when the episodes dropped.

The fourth season sees Eleven and her fellow monster fighters take on the ghoulish Vecna, while secrets from the past continue to haunt the present.

Created by the Duffer brothers, Stranger Things’ blend of horror, teen drama and 80s nostalgia has ensured its place in the pop cultural canon. There is one more season left – the series will end after the fifth season.

Stranger Things stars Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, David Harbour, Sadie Sink, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Finn Wolfhard.