“Wednesday” has failed to knock “Stranger Things 4” off the top of Netflix’s most popular TV list in its fourth week of viewing, with the Jenna Ortega-led series falling around 155,940 hours short of the “Stranger Things” Season 4 record of 1.35 billion total hours viewed.
“Wednesday” accumulated an additional 173.96 million hours viewed this week as it remained the most popular Netflix program for the fourth straight week. Standing at 1.19 billion total hours viewed, “Wednesday” is the second most popular English-language series on Netflix and has reached approximately 176 million households since its premiere.
Despite the victory for “Stranger Things,” the Millie Bobby Brown series benefitted from several factors in the race for the most popular series, including a longer series and episodes as well as an extended viewing window. “Stranger Things” Season 4 had nine episodes, all of which clocked in past the hour mark as well as a two-hour finale, as opposed to “Wednesday’s” eight episodes, none of which exceeded the hour mark.
Additionally, the “Stranger Things” Season 4 release schedule, which was segmented into two parts, gave the series two viewing windows that would contribute to the season’s total viewed hours. Though “Stranger Things 4” Part 1 was released May 27, with a viewing window that ended June 24, Netflix announced that any further viewing of Part 1 would not factor into the most popular list tabulation. The second viewing began July 1 with the release of Part 2, which accounted only for Part 2 viewing.
After “Harry & Meghan” premiered Dec. 8 as the streamer’s biggest documentary series debut with 81.55 million hours viewed, volume II’s Dec. 15 release captivated audiences and contributed to the series’ total 97.71 million hours viewed across around 33 million households.
In other news, Noah Centineo’s action-thriller “The Recruit,” which premiered Dec. 16, debuted on this week’s 10 top list at #3 with 52.3 million hours viewed while season 4 of reality dating show “Too Hot To Handle” earned 37.83 million hours viewed.