Netflix has long kept shtum on viewing stats, but recently they’ve been releasing some — albeit highly selective — data. That’s to say they only do it when they want to brag. Recently they claimed Murder Mystery, which reunited Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, was their most-clicked-on original movie ever. Now, only a few weeks later, the record for the most-watched anything has been smashed by season 3 of Stranger Things.
.@Stranger_Things 3 is breaking Netflix records!
40.7 million household accounts have been watching the show since its July 4 global launch — more than any other film or series in its first four days. And 18.2 million have already finished the entire season.
— Netflix (@netflix) July 8, 2019
According to the Netflix Twitter account (and via Entertainment Weekly), the latest go-around with the ’80s-set suburban fantasy show was watched by 40.7 million accounts in its first four days.
Pretty impressive! What’s more, Netflix claimed, “18.2 million have already finished the entire season.” Is that news good or not-quite-good? There are only eight new episodes — one shy of last season. Did these people, say, go outside and do non-Netflix-related activities? Or, worse, did they cheat on it with another piece of Netflix content, like, say, the newly-dropped Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, or perhaps Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver?
Whatever the case, this is still good news for Netflix, who recently announced they’ll be spending less money on their original films*. Then again, they just announced their “biggest movie ever,” which will star Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds, so who knows what’s going on over there at the information superhighway’s largest streamer.
* Note: This post originally cited a report that claimed Triple Frontier, starring Ben Affleck, had lost them money. Netflix has since claimed it’s been watched by 63 million accounts since March.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
