by Thinus Ferreira
In an upside-down world, Stranger Things and Obi-Wan Kenobi now hold the new records for streaming television's new most-watched shows ever.
Both Netflix and Disney+ claimed new video streaming watching records for new releases: Netflix for the first half of the fourth and final season of Stranger Things, and Disney+ for its just-released live-action miniseries set in that galaxy far, far away further filling in the story of the Jedi knight turned hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Netflix announced that the first episodes from the fourth season of Stranger Things led to 286.79 million hours viewed worldwide over the past weekend, surpassing the previous Netflix record-holder - the second season of period-drama Bridgerton which logged 193 million hours viewed in March over its opening weekend this year.
This makes the Stranger Things season 4 debut Netflix's new most-watched show ever for the debut of an English-language TV show (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 reach number one in 83 countries, and also reached top 10 positions in all 93 countries that Netflix tracks.
Meanwhile, Disney on social media tweeted that the force has been strong with its Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries with Ewan McGregor reprising the titular role.
"Thank you to the best fans in the galaxy for making Obi-Wan Kenobi the most-watched Disney+ Original series premiere globally to date, based on hours streamed in an opening weekend," Disney said. Disney didn't release any specific internal viewership details.
Stranger Things will release the fourth season's final two episodes on Friday 1 July and Obi-Wan Kenobi is releasing episodes 3 to 6 with one episode a week on Fridays.
