‘Stranger Things’ season 3 seen by 64 million in first month after release, most popular on Netflix

Originally posted Thursday, October 17, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog

Not surprisingly, Netflix’s most popular TV show is “Stranger Things,” shot in metro Atlanta.

About 64 million households worldwide out of 178 million total watched at least 70% of one episode of the drama after its release in July. This is not an apples-to-apples comparison to the way traditional Nielsen ratings for broadcast and cable networks are measured and as a result seems a lot larger.

Still, the show helped fuel Netflix subscriptions in the third quarter since it debuted on July 4, reversing Netflix’s first drop in net subscribers in years during the second quarter.

Netflix added.6.8 million new customers in the third quarter worldwide, with 520,000 in the U.S.

But watch out: the dominant streaming service faces major competition in the coming weeks with Apple TV and Disney Plus joining the fray. Soon, HBO Max, Peacock and Quibi are jumping in as well.

Netflix also released its top 10 movies and TV shows of the past 12 months measured by viewership from the first 28 days. Here are the top 10 films:

1- “Bird Box” Sandra Bullock  80 million

2- “Murder Mystery” Adam Sandler 73 million

3- “Triple Frontier” Ben Affleck 52 million

4- “The Perfect Date” 48 million

5- “Tall Girl” 41 million

6- “The Highwaymen” Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson 40 million

7- “Secret Obsession” Brenda Song 40 million

8- “Always Be My Maybe” Ali Wong 32 million

9- “Otherhood” Patricia Arquette 29 million

10- “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” 20 million

And here are the top 10 TV shows:

1- “Stranger Things” horror/drama

2- “The Umbrella Academy”

3- “La Casa de Papel”

4- “You”

5- “Sex Education”

6- “Our Planet”

7- “Unbelievable”

8- “Dead to Me”

9- “When They See Us”

10 - “Elite”