The series "Stranger Things" has officially become the most popular project in Netflix history, garnering over 1.2 billion views even before the release of the final episodes. According to Variety, the show has surpassed such platform hits as "Wednesday" and "Squid Game".

Viewing statistics are calculated by dividing the total viewing time of any part of the series by the total runtime of all available episodes. In just 25 days, the first part of the fifth season garnered 102.6 million views.

Cultural Impact and Popularity Records

The final season became the most popular series of the week in 90 out of 93 countries where Netflix is available. "Stranger Things" became the first series to have all five seasons simultaneously make it into the platform's top-10.

The most-watched scenes of the series were:

  • The scene from episode 7 of season 4, where Nancy falls into a trance under Vecna's influence
  • The final scene of episode 8 of season 3, where Dustin and Suzie sing "NeverEnding Story"

Economic Effect and Jobs

Over nine years of existence, the series created over 8 thousand jobs in the production sector and brought $1.4 billion to the US national GDP. Georgia benefited the most from this, where most of the series was filmed — the contribution to the state's GDP amounted to $650 million with the involvement of over 2 thousand suppliers of various products.

California took second place with a contribution of $500 million to the state's GDP.

Musical Hits and Brands

The impact of "Stranger Things" extended far beyond streaming. The use of "Running Up That Hill" in the fourth season gave Kate Bush her first top-10 hit in the US 38 years after its release. The fifth season repeated this effect — according to Spotify, among Generation Z, listening to Diana Ross's "Upside Down" increased by 1250 percent.

Brands also benefited from the series' popularity. Kellogg's recorded sales growth after the second season's release, and interest in Dungeons and Dragons grew by 673 percent since the series' premiere.

Final Episodes Coming Soon

On December 26, three more episodes of the final season of "Stranger Things" will be released on Netflix. The last — eighth — episode will become available to Ukrainian viewers on January 1, 2025.