Stranger Things Season 5 Is Netflix’s Worst Nightmare
It may have been a long time in coming, but the fourth season of Stranger Things was an unmitigated success for Netflix. In the first weekend alone, it became the number-one show in 83 countries (a first for the franchise) and had a whopping 286.7 million hours viewed by fans. However, Stranger Things season 5 may prove to be the streaming platform’s worst nightmare because subscribers are likely to ditch Netflix en masse once this final season streams its last episode.
The reason that Netflix is still considered the world’s most successful streaming service is that it entered the market at the ground floor. It was the first major streaming service, and for a long time, it was the only way for fans to watch their favorite movies and TV shows without a cable box or DVDs. Now, however, the streaming landscape is littered with competitors: we’re living through Cable 2.0, which requires you to subscribe to so many streaming services to watch everything worth seeing that cord-cutters aren’t saving much money anymore.
More and more of those cord-cutters have been cutting out expensive streaming platforms, and that’s why Stranger Things season 5 is so important to Netflix executives. The streamer can no longer afford to host the robust movie and TV show selection it once did, meaning that the best way to keep subscribers around is by creating content audiences can’t find anywhere else. Stranger Things has proven to be the platform’s most successful original franchise, and the sheer amount of people who streamed season 4 proves that audiences are still eager to watch the ongoing adventures of Eleven, Hopper, and the rest of the crew.
When Stranger Things season 5 drops (which won’t be until 2025 at the earliest), we have no doubt that Netflix subscribers will binge these episodes more fiercely than they did season 4. The streaming platform is hoping to leverage that fan interest into two spinoffs: an animated series and a live-action series. However, the blunt truth is that we don’t think Netflix subscribers will stick around long enough to enjoy the spinoffs after Stranger Things season 5 concludes.
Netflix has managed to bounce back a bit, but the platform shocked the world when it lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers in 2022. This led to a crackdown on password-sharing that destroyed much of the goodwill Netflix had earned among subscribers in previous years. This was enough to send some subscribers to rivals like Prime, and to add insult to injury, those rival streaming services began offering their own “must-see” programming.
For example, The Boys is to Amazon Prime as Stranger Things season 5 is to Netflix: a reason for subscribers to stick around. Other streaming rivals have great exclusive content as well: Max has Succession, Disney+ has Andor, Apple TV Plus has For All Mankind, and so on. The bottom line is that Netflix’s rivals have a stronger lineup of exclusive content than ever before, and Netflix is getting prepared to end its most successful adult show.
We’re as hyped to see Stranger Things season 5 as much as anyone, but be honest: what other quality exclusive shows does Netflix have to offer that they haven’t prematurely killed? Killer programs like Sense8 and Glow were canceled and have been replaced by digital grotesqueries like the Big Mouth show. The sad reality is that Netflix has mostly become home to lowbrow, bottom-of-the-barrel entertainment, and once Stranger Things (one of its only ongoing shows aimed squarely at adults) airs its final season, Netflix will experience an exodus of subscribers that not even Lord Vecna can stop.
