Did you spend Memorial Day weekend binge-watching the new season of Stranger Things? If you did, it looks like you certainly weren’t alone.

Following an extended (pandemic-imposed) hiatus, Stranger Things returned for Part 1 of its fourth season this past weekend. And the longer wait between seasons seems to have only made fans more rabid for the series. The premiere broke streaming records for Netflix over the weekend, pulling a massive 286.79 million hours viewed.

The figures blow past the previous premiere weekend record held by Bridgerton season 2 (193 million hours viewed).

The series’ international popularity helped boost it to its record-breaking premiere; Stranger Things reached #1 on Netflix in 83 countries. (Netflix tracks viewership for a total of 93 countries. For the 10 countries where Stranger Things didn’t land the #1 spot, it still cracked the Top 10 list.)

Season 4 also boosted viewership of the past seasons of Stranger Things as well. Memorial Day weekend saw another 38 million hours viewed for Season 1, 22.2M for Season 2, and 24.3M for Season 3.   

In addition to binging the supernatural series, fans got inspired to seek out the music featured in the new season. Max’s favorite song, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” spiked to #1 on iTunes – 37 years after its original release. Over on Spotify, Bush’s song saw a 8,700% increase in global streams. Musical Youth’s “Pass the Dutchie” also saw a nice 1030% boost in streams.

Stranger Things Season 4 Vol. 1 is available to stream now on Netflix. The second half of the season will arrive soon, premiering two additional episodes on July 1.

Source: Deadline

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