‘Stranger Things’ Smashes Netflix’s Opening Weekend Viewing Record

Netflix viewers spent a lot of time with Stranger Things’ super-sized fourth season over the weekend — a record-setting amount, in fact.

According to Netflix’s internal measurement, Stranger Things racked up 286.79 million hours of viewing time worldwide from May 25-27. That blows past the previous record holder, season two of Bridgerton, which had 193 million hours of watch time over its opening weekend in March.

Bridgerton went on to claim the title of Netflix’s most watched English-language series of all time over its first 28 days of release, with 656.26 million hours of viewing across the globe. Stranger Things season four is already almost 44 percent of the way to that tally after just three days — and with the final two episodes of the season (which clock in at nearly four hours combined) still to be released in July.

Squid Game is the all-time leader among Netflix series in any language with 1.65 billion hours of viewing over its first 28 days of release. Part five of Money Heist (792.23 million hours) also slots ahead of Bridgerton.

The heavily anticipated debut of season four — which premiered almost three years after the previous installment — also helped push prior seasons of Stranger Things into Netflix’s global and United States top 10. The first three seasons had a combined 84.55 million hours of viewing time from May 21-27, per Netflix.

Additionally, Kate Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill,” which is featured in the season, has hit No. 1 on Apple’s iTunes and No. 2 on Spotify’s U.S. chart since the premiere.