From December 5-11, “Wednesday” compiled 269.67 million hours viewed, which was more than enough to pass “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” and become Netflix’s new No. 2 English-language TV series of all-time. In its first full week of availability, November 28-December 4, “Wednesday” had a whopping 411.29 million hours; its Week 1 total was 341.23 million hours, but that start included only five days. We’ll save you the math. To date, “Wednesday” has been streamed for 1.02 billion hours. Now only the fourth season of “Stranger Things,” which launched in two parts this May and July, stands in Wednesday Addams’ path to streaming immortality. (And, again, “Squid Game” if we’re counting non-English series.)
Below “Stranger Things 4” (1.352 billion hours viewed in the first 28 days) and now “Wednesday” are, in order: “Dahmer” (865.22 million hours), “Bridgerton” Season 2 (656.26 million hours), “Bridgerton” Season 1 (625.49 million hours), “Stranger Things 3” (582.10 million hours), “Lucifer: Season 5” (569.48 million hours), “The Witcher: Season 1” (541.01 million hours), “Inventing Anna” (511.92 million hours), and “13 Reasons Why: Season 2” (496.12 million hours). Korean-language series “Squid Game” amassed an amazing 1.65 billion hours viewed over its first 28 days. Netflix’s “all-time” records cut off after 28 days of viewing for each episode; the streamer only began releasing the data in June 2021. Netflix What’s that you say? More math? OK! “Wednesday” has averaged 53.68 million hours viewed per day over these initial 19 days. While each day is definitely not created equal, that would put it on a path to a projected 1.50 billion hours over its first 28 days. That’s strong enough to keep the “Stranger Things” kids a real spook — and even to keep the hardest of “Squid Games” players up at night. As appears will be the case here, Netflix series often peak in Week 2. That makes sense: Week 1 is often a shortened week, and it can still take a (short) bit for a show to enter the cultural zeitgeist, which these days is arbitrated by social media. Any sense of immediacy tends to taper off, bit by bit, after that. There are, of course, exceptions to that very generalized trend. The front-loaded nature of Netflix series will probably keep the crown on “Squid Game” — but there’s some real “Stranger” danger for the Duffer Bros.
Starring Jenna Ortega as the title character, “Wednesday” sees the Addams’ daughter enroll in Nevermore Academy, where she makes new friends, develops psychic abilities, and investigates a string of murders around the town of Jericho, Vermont. The series also stars Gwendoline Christie, Jamie McShane, Percy Hynes White, Hunter Doohan, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Naomi J Ogawa, Moosa Mostafa, Georgie Farmer, Riki Lindhome, and Christina Ricci, who played the character of Wednesday in two films released in 1991 and 1993. The show also features Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Fred Armisen, and Isaac Ordonez in recurring roles as the other Addams Family members. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
