Stranger Things Season 5: Stranger Things has become Netflix’s biggest show. For nearly a decade, the sci-fi series has become a cultural phenomenon and garnered over 1.2 billion views, as per a Variety report. All set for its finale release on New Year’s Eve, Stranger Things Season 5 will mark the closing of this cult-favourite. Since 2016, the show has created over 8000 jobs in the US and contributed $1.4 billion to the GDP.
Stranger Things Season 5 came with its biggest opening for an English-language series, even before its release. The final season of the upside-down fantasy world even crossed other popular titles like ‘Wednesday’ and ‘Squid Game‘. However, they rank above Stranger Things Season 4.
Stranger Things Season 5: Records broken
In just 25 days of its release, Volume 1 of the final season of Stranger Things gained over 102 million views. As stats predict record-breaking finale, the Millie Bobby Brown starrer ranks at No. 9 between Bridgerton’s Season 3 and Night Agent Season 1. Given Netflix’s parameters to measure the final viewership three months after a release, Stranger Things Season 5 might become number 1 by early 2026.
Overall, the final season of Stranger Things does rank as the most-watched title of the week in 90 of the 93 streaming countries. In fact, all four of its seasons dominated the top 10 ranking at once, across the month Season 5 debuted on Netflix.
Interestingly, the show made the song ‘Running Up That Hill’, released nearly four decades ago, rank among the Top 10 hits in the US. Used extensively in Season 4, the song that shields Max from Vecna became Kate Bush’s first-ever entry to the list, along with Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ in the UK.
From waffles to games: How Stranger Things was so much more than cinema
As the finale hits the OTT screens near the end of 2025, the impact of Stranger Things stretches way beyond Netflix. According to a Spotify report, several songs resurfaced after the series was released, including Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” (1980), which saw an increase in streams of 1,250% and Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” (1987), which recorded a jump of 880%.
Similarly, Gen Z revisited the hits of The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” and ABBA’s “Fernando” (1976). More than 200,000 users on the music streaming platform have created Stranger Things-themed playlists since its debut in 2016.
Not just songs, the series skyrocketed the interest of ‘Eggos’ – a snack popularly loved by Eleven. After the sudden popularity of the show, Kellogg’s reported a 14% growth in the fourth quarter of 2017, with a continued effect in 2018. The board game played by the protagonists of the show, Dungeons & Dragons, also soared a newfound interest by 673%. Ahead of the release of the series finale, Nabisco released a Stranger Things-themed ‘Chips Ahoy’ cookie. The popular snack in the fandom world reached 11 billion impressions.
Any guesses why tourism has boosted in Georgia this year? Yes. It was Stranger Things. The popular Netflix show was shot in the city, which contributed to $650 million to the state’s GDP. More than 2000 vendors were involved in the production, followed by California, with a $500 million boost in GDP from Stranger Things alone.
Stranger Things Season 5: Final episodes
With several screenings scheduled for the final two episodes, Stranger Things will finally come to a closing end on New Year’s Eve. Several theatres will play the show in movie theatres as box office records might soar high.
The much-anticipated finale of the mega-hit series will be released on December 31 at 8 PM (ET) or 6.30 AM (IST). With episodes 5,6,7 of the Stranger Things 5 Volume 2 all set for release, here are the final runtimes.
Episode 5 “Shock Jock”: 1hr 8min
Episode 6 “Escape From Camazotz”: 1hr 15min
Episode 7 “The Bridge”: 1hr 6min
The finale’s runtime, ‘The Rightside Up’, has also been updated. It will be a total of two hours and eight minutes.