One of the summer's biggest pop culture phenomenons has undoubtedly been the Netflix horror thriller Stranger Things, which saw its pre-release buzz about Winona Ryder quickly shift to an embrace of the show's shining young cast members. The buzz definitely worked, whatever its focus, and if new reports are to be believed, Stranger Things has been one of Netflix's top three shows to date since its debut.
According to Symphony Advanced Media, Stranger Things slots into the third most-watched spot after 35 days of release, and an average of 14.07 million adults in the key 18-49 demographic tuned in. That's pretty astounding, as it fell behind Season 1 of Fuller House, the revival of a hugely popular sitcom, and Season 4 of Orange is the New Black, the highly publicized fourth year of an already established series. And that would put it just over a million viewers stronger than Making a Murderer and Daredevil Season 2, which both hit right over 13.3 million.
A couple of weeks ago, early results showed that Stranger Things was indeed one of the biggest shows on the streaming service, but you know how fickle audiences can be, as evidenced best by viewer dropoffs between a series premiere and the follow-up episodes. It could have been a huge anomaly that an original genre series from largely unknown creators jumped above all of Netflix's higher-profile projects, but Stranger Things has consistently brought people in. Not completely consistent, as the total would have to be closer to 17 or 18 million for it to have doubled those earlier stats, but it's still nothing to scoff at.
It's of course important to note that because Netflix doesn't officially release its own data, there's a grain of salt to be had involving these results as reported by Deadline. Symphony uses audio recognition technology for its ratings retrieval system, and the company has a very specific system in place regarding what is being measured. But if the numbers are wrong all across the board, and there aren't just random inaccuracies, then Stranger Things would still be in third place, just with a different audience turnout. I choose to remain optimistic here.
This is a show that has inspired countless fan theories and covers of the theme song and fan cosplay and all kinds of other excellence. So it's mildly maddening that Netflix has yet to order up Season 2, despite having given many other shows follow-up seasons much quicker in comparison. But it will happen. Oh yes, we will see the Upside Down again if it's the last thing any of us do.
Season 1 of Stranger Things is available for streaming on Netflix, and if you haven't already told every single one of your non-hermit and non-animal friends about it by now, you're doing it wrong. If you need more awesomeness to anticipate in the future, check out our Netflix premiere schedule.
