Stranger Things is one of Netflix's biggest and most popular shows.

As revealed by the streaming giant last year, the last two seasons of Stranger Things pulled in huge numbers for the platform. However, the first part of Season 4 is set to outdo both in its opening week alone.

According to the official Stranger Things account on Twitter, the series logged 286.79 million hours over the weekend and topped the charts in 83 countries. That's nearly half of all territories where you can watch Netflix, which is not an easy feat. Furthermore, even if we expect a slight dip in viewership numbers over the coming days, the first seven episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 should beat Season 3's series-best 582 million hours over its first 28 days of release. Unfortunately, we don't think that the latest season of Stranger Things can beat Squid Game's debut season for the biggest launch on Netflix.

running up that hill to smash some records brb pic.twitter.com/skrR3CmoLh

— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) May 31, 2022

Netflix definitely needed this.

The first half of 2022 has been rough on the world's leading streaming platform. After seeing its viewership rise for more than a decade, Netflix saw its subscriber base plummet earlier this year. This forced Netflix to reconsider its plans and pivot towards gaming as well as drop a handful of big projects like Space Force and Bright while laying off hundreds of employees.

Only time will tell if Netflix's recent string of successes and upcoming shows like Cobra Kai Season 5 as well as the final two episodes of Stranger Things Season 4, among others, are enough to stave off the expected decline.

Speaking of the final two episodes of Stranger Things Season 4, we can expect the viewing numbers to be similar when they drop on July 1. The runtimes for Episodes 8 and 9 are very long at one hour and 25 minutes and almost two and a half hours, respectively.

The past weekend was good news for streamers and theatrical releases alike. Disney Plus also enjoyed its best weekend outing yet with Obi-Wan Kenobi while Tom Cruise saw Top Gun: Maverick soar to unprecedented heights with the biggest opening ever for his career.