Stranger Things and Obi-Wan Kenobi have set new milestones for the most-watched shows on streaming television.
Netflix and Disney+ both set new video streaming viewing records for recent releases: Netflix for the first half of Stranger Things’ fourth and final season, and Disney+ for its recently released live-action miniseries set in that galaxy far, far away, filling in the story of Jedi knight turned hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The first episodes of Netflix’s fourth season of Stranger Things racked up 286.79 million hours of viewing worldwide over the weekend, breaking the previous record set by the second season of historical drama Bridgerton, which racked up 193 million hours over its debut weekend this year.
Stranger Things season 4 is now Netflix’s most-watched show ever for an English-language TV show’s debut (Korea’s Squid Game is the all-time leader for a Netflix series in any language).
According to Netflix, the new Stranger Things season was the first to hit number one in 83 countries, and it also ranked in the top ten in all 93 countries it monitors.
Meanwhile, Disney stated that the force is strong in its Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries, which stars Ewan McGregor as the title character.
“Thank you to the greatest fans in the galaxy,” Disney remarked, “for making Obi-Wan Kenobi the most-watched Disney+ Original series debut internationally to date, based on hours streamed in an opening weekend.” Disney did not provide any internal viewership figures.
Stranger Things’ final two episodes will be released on Friday, July 1st, and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s episodes 3 to 6 will be released one episode per week on Fridays.