According to Deadline, Netflix premiered season five of Stranger Things over the Thanksgiving holiday. The Nielsen ratings recorded 8.45 billion views from November 24 to November 30. This would make the season premiere holding the largest viewing audience in streaming history. It was reported that when season four premiered in 2022, it brought in 7.2 billion in views. Stranger Things also made the top Ten list on mxdwn.com this year.

Deadline also mentioned that even though it is difficult to compare season four and season five in the Nielsen ratings, 57% of the total viewership minutes came from the new season’s first four episodes and 59% was watched by adults between the ages of 18 and 49. Nielsen mentioned that despite the fifth season premiering on Wednesday at 8 pm ET, compared to season four releasing on a Friday at 3 am ET, it still managed a very impressive amount of viewers with only four episodes. Season four released seven episodes at its debut, and took almost a week to reach the previous record-breaking numbers. A week prior to the fifth season premiere, anticipation for the final season saw all four other seasons watched and enter Netflix’s top TV list

Stranger Things is a tough competition, but Deadline notes that other streamers came in rather high in the ratings as well. Paramount+ show Landman, starring Billy Bob Thorton (The Electric State, Bad Santa), secured the number two spot with 1.34 billion views, and The Beast In Me with 1.06 billion views came in third. Classic holiday movies were also in the mix with How The Grinch Stole Christmas coming in with 669 million minutes viewed. Home Alone received 499 million minutes viewed. Lastly, Elf starring Will Farrell (Your’re Cordially Invited, A Very Joned Christmas Movie) came in with 397 million minutes of viewing time.

The next volume of Stranger Things will premiere on Christmas Day, and the two-hour finale will drop on New year’s on Netflix and fin theaters.