After scoring the largest single week streaming viewing total ever with the premiere of its final season, Stranger Things had to settle for just the third-largest week of all time with the release of more episodes on Christmas.
The Netflix smash recorded 6.89 billion minutes of viewing for the week of Dec. 22-28. That trails only two other weeks in the five-year history of Nielsen’s streaming rankings — both of which are also owned by Stranger Things. The season five premiere week in late November ranks first with 8.46 billion minutes, and season four’s second week in late May and early June 2022 had 7.2 billion minutes.
From the week of its final season premiere through Dec. 28, Stranger Things recorded more than 25 billion viewing minutes in the United States. That figure alone would make it the top original streaming series of the year and put the show in the top seven among all titles, to say nothing of its tallies for the previous 47 weeks of 2025.
Apple TV’s Pluribus set a new high of 483 million minutes of watch time for the week of its first season finale. The Rhea Seehorn-led series grew by 41 percent week to week. Also growing substantially was Fallout (918 million minutes), which was up 16 percent on Prime Video as the second episode of its season debuted (the show shifted from a binge release to a weekly rollout for the current season).
Landman also continued its big second season, rising for a sixth straight week to 1.64 billion minutes for Paramount+. On the acquired series chart, former TNT stalwart The Closer drew 974 million viewing minutes after being added to Netflix on Dec. 22 (it also streams on Peacock and Pluto TV).
Eight of the top 10 movies during Christmas week were holiday films. Home Alone topped the list with 1.05 billion minutes of watch time for Disney+, its best weekly showing ever on the Nielsen charts.
Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries. The top streaming titles for Dec. 22-28, 2025, are below.
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