Earlier this year, Netflix predicted a loss of 2 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2022 due to password sharing and a ramp-up in streaming competition. However, a new report revealed that the company only lost a little under a million, and those in charge believe that has something to do with the hit show Stranger Things.
In an official Netflix video report, posted to YouTube, about the company's Q2 2022 earnings, CEO Reed Hastings might as well have called Hawkins his hometown. That's because he suggested that the recent release of Stranger Things Season 4 was the streamer's saving grace. "If there was a single thing we might say Stranger Things," he said.
This prediction likely isn't far off. The week after it was released, Season 4 of Stranger Things broke the previous Nielson streaming record. Between May 30 and June 5, Stranger Things accumulated a total of 7.2 billion minutes viewed, becoming the first show to surpass 6 billion minutes in one week. According to Netflix, viewers watched over 930 million hours of the show in its first month.
The season was so popular, in fact, that its second volume caused Netflix's servers to crash. While the site was down, Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays the terrifying villain Vecna on Season 4 of the show, remarked on the lotalty of Stranger Things fans, tweeting "Y'all broke the internet! lol."
Hopefully Netflix servers will be better prepared in 2024, as that's when actor David Harbour, who plays Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, predicts that Season 5 will be coming out. "I think we'll [shoot] next year," he said. "They're finishing writing it this year, and they need to prep and stuff, so hopefully it'll be this year." He added that, based on the show's track record, mid-2024 is a good target date to expect the new episodes.
Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer gave an update that seems to back Harbour's prediction. "I know that the writer's room is going to start in the first week of August," he said. Sibling co-creator Matt Duffer also gave fans an idea of what to expect from Season 5 from a content standpoint. "Usually at the end of the season," he said, "we tie things up with a nice bow before a little tease that says, 'Hold on, something is unraveling.' As we move into Season 5, we don't have to do that. There won't be a reset from where we finish this season."
Stranger Things Season 4 is available to stream in its entirety on Netflix.
Source: YouTube via ComicBook