The new season of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things has been all the binge-watching rage since its debut last month. Centered around a group of kids dealing with the sudden appearance of supernatural forces in small town Indiana, the new batch of episodes have gotten near-universally positive reviews. The series should prove to be a boon for Netflix as well, perhaps taking up the mantle left behind by House of Cards as the platform's signature original show. If industry players have seen the numbers that have trickled in thus far, every other TV entity should fear not only Netflix, but Stranger Things in particular.
According to Deadline, the new season of the program has pulled in a giant number of viewers in the short time since becoming available on Netflix. In the first 72 hours that it was live, Episode 1 averaged an incredible 15.8 million U.S. viewers, including almost 11 million in the demographic of people who are watching the series in their TVs. In addition, Nielsen, the showbiz entity who is keeping record of all these stats, said that each of the nine new episodes averaged 4 million viewers and 3 million in the TV demo during that time frame. The binge-watching line from before wasn't a lie either, as fans have turned out in droves to consume the new season in one gigantic bite. The report states that 361,000 people watched all nine episodes on the first day that they became available.
Nielsen's method of monitoring Netflix viewing is relatively new and does not encompass those who may consume episodes of the series on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. In that case, the numbers for Stranger Things could conceivably be even higher than what's been reported.
This is far better news for the show than what transpired last week, when cast member Charlie Heaton was busted for cocaine possession at LAX. Sources say the Stranger Things star flew into the U.S. from London, but was barred from entering the country after a random baggage check revealed that he had drugs on him. He didn't have a previous record of narcotics-related infractions, so he was allowed to fly back home to the U.K.