Stranger Things 3 viewership proving why season 4 is necessary

We knew coming into Stranger Things 3 that the ratings were going to be enormous; we just didn’t comprehend fully just how big they would truly be.

In a post on Twitter, Netflix confirmed that more than 40 million household accounts have seen at least one episode of the new season since it premiered on the July 4 holiday — that’s only four days ago, mind you! Meanwhile, almost half of those viewers (18.2 million) have already finished the entire batch of episodes. That’s an incredible amount of viewership and is easily the sort of thing that could lead to a season 4 renewal coming sooner rather than later.

If we were to compare this to the viewership of a series like Game of Thrones, we know that the final season for it generated slightly more total viewers on average per episode than the 18+ million who have finished season 3. Yet, at the same time we don’t know if it can touch the 40 million viewer threshold. It’s still hard to compare Game of Thrones with Stranger Things, given that there are so many more viewers out there with Netflix accounts and there are so many other viewership measures for Game of Thrones that are hard to track.

The main reason we compare them? They are two of the only ratings juggernauts out there within the cable/streaming world. One of the other big ones in The Big Bang Theory came to a close earlier this spring; with Game of Thrones also over, Stranger Things could end up standing atop TV Mountain as the most popular show for the remainder of its run — depending, of course, on how you gauge popularity. Our feeling is this — if your show is successful enough to make Coca-Cola bring back New Coke for a limited run, you are doing something right.

We’ve noted already that it is a foregone conclusion that a Stranger Things season 4 will happen; whether or not it is the final one is to be determined, but we consider this to be further validation that Netflix will make an announcement before long. There’s no reason to prolong an announcement when so many know that it’s coming … and it can also spike interest in even more viewers coming on board. They’re going to want to know that you plan on continuing the story.

What do you think about the enormous viewership Stranger Things 3 is already getting?

Share right now in the comments. (Photo: Netflix.)

This article was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.