‘Stranger Things’ Reigns Supreme as Top-Streamed Show of 2022

Stranger Things is now the reigning king of streaming, according to the Nielsen ratings.

The Netflix Show ‘Stranger Things’ is a Streaming Hit According to Nielsen Ratings

Stranger Things is a sci-fi and horror streaming television series created by the Duffer Brothers. It premiered on Netflix in 2016, and now has four seasons.

The show is set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980s. It follows the supernatural events that occur there, including the disappearance of a young boy and the appearance of a mysterious girl with psychokinetic abilities.

Stranger Things was mostly filmed around Atlanta, Georgia. The Duffer Brothers picked the location due to the variety of locations that could be easily fit the show’s 1980s setting.

The filming of the final season is scheduled to begin in May 2023. This means the release date on Netflix is still far away.

Historically, Stranger Things has always premiered during the summer. So, it’s likely that Netflix will release the final season between May and July of 2024

Stranger Things: Nielsen Ratings Revealed

The hit Netflix series, led by the release of its fourth season, topped Nielsen’s 2022 streaming chart as the most-streamed TV show. And it was the overall streaming show in the U.S. last year.

The sci-fi Netflix series racked up an impressive 52 billion minutes streamed, making it the highest total since COVID-driven lockdowns. And it drove audiences to watch 57.1 billion minutes of NBC’s “The Office” in 2020.

According to Netflix, Stranger Things 4 holds the title as the No. 1 most-watched English TV series in the first four weeks of release. It had 1.35 billion hours watched worldwide in the initial 28-day period.

And it’s not just Stranger Things making waves on Netflix – original content like Wednesday also brought in a lot of viewers with 1.24 billion hours watched in the same time period.

Other Streaming Shows

But it’s not just the new shows that are getting love on streaming platforms. Classic television shows like NCIS continued to be popular. The CBS crime-drama’s 356 episodes on Netflix pulled in 38.1 billion minutes viewed.

And in 2021, CBS’s Criminal Minds was the most-viewed show in the U.S. on Netflix with 33.9 billion minutes of watch time, per Nielsen.

It’s clear that whether it’s an original series like Stranger Things or a beloved classic, audiences can’t get enough of streaming content.