Seven Stranger Things records to turn your world Upside Down as final ever season drops
The first batch of episodes for the final ever season of Stranger Things drops on Netflix today - so grab your denim jacket and ramp up the Kate Bush to 100 because we’re going back to Hawkins!
The first season graced our screens in 2016 and the sci-fi series has grown in popularity with every new season. The show is set in the 1980s and follows the lives of a group of highschoolers who spend their teenage years grappling with secret experiments and discovering the supernatural forces that are active in their hometown.
The cast is bursting with talent, with people such as Winona Ryder (USA), who plays Joyce Byers, and Millie Bobby Brown (UK), who plays the telepathic protagonist, Eleven. Millie is best known for her performance in the show where her character experiments with supernatural powers, but in the real world, her talent goes much further.
On 20 November 2018, she was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador to advocate for children’s rights and raise awareness about issues of bullying and violence. At the age of 14 years and 274 days, her selection for the role made her the youngest UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. The ceremony took place at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, USA, and suitably fell on World Children’s Day.
While Millie made a powerful statement that influence isn’t limited by age, another Guinness World Records title holder simultaneously smashed two contrasting yet impressive record titles when Stranger Things surged in popularity.
One of the most recognizable things about the Stranger Things series is its inclusion of popular 80s music. Throughout last season, the track by Kate Bush (USA), “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” was featured numerous times.
It was the lead single on her album Hounds of Love, which was released on 5 August 1985. The track had only reached a peak position of No.6 in the UK’s Official Singles Chart, and this was only a couple of weeks after its release.
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However, after appearing in Season 4 of Stranger Things, “Running Up That Hill” grabbed the No.1 spot in the charts on 23 June 2022, where it spent nine weeks in the UK Top 10. The day that the track rose to the top of the chart was also the day that Kate Bush was awarded the Guinness World Records title for the longest time for a track by a female artist to reach No.1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart.
In the third week of her song remaining at the No.1 spot, she nabbed a second title for the oldest female artist to reach No.1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart - even the Demogorgon couldn’t stop Kate Bush from running to No. 1! On 7 July 2022, she was 63 years 342 days old when that second title rolled in, and thanks to Stranger Things, her music was introduced to a whole new generation of people.
At this point, there were records falling faster than the lights flickering in Joyce Byers’ living room, and the series became the most in-demand sci-fi drama TV show. On 31 January, this year, according to data-science firm Parrot Analytics, Stranger Things had a global demand rating that was 53.8 times greater than any average TV show.
The measurement for this record was taken from the period from 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2025, and in that time its popularity continued to thrive.
Looking back at the show’s sheer success around the world, there is no doubt that Netflix also developed a dominance in the streaming world after the release of Stranger Things. In February 2018, the first two seasons of the show had been thriving and helped the streaming service gain a Guinness World Records title of its own: most subscriptions for a TV streaming service. In the year of 2018 alone, Netflix had amassed a huge $8 billion for its own in-house productions, and over half of all US broadband households were subscribed.
After the release of season three in July 2019, Stranger Things was still thriving and a year later, the show had helped Netflix secure 160 nominations for the Primetime Emmy Awards.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the nominees attended virtually, but at the ceremony that took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, the success of Netflix was celebrated. The number of nominations for the streaming service also landed the company with a Guinness World Records title for most Primetime Emmy Award nominations for a network in a single year.
Do you love Stranger Things and want to claim a Guinness World Records title of your own? Well, just when you thought things couldn’t get stranger, a new record has appeared from the Upside Down!
There is an unclaimed record for largest gathering of people dressed as Eleven (Stranger Things), but there are a couple of key rules to keep in mind if you want to give it a go:
- The minimum number of participants is 250.
- All participants must have red paint or make-up below one nostril to mimic a nosebleed.
- All participants must either have a shaved head, wear a bald cap, or use a shaved wig. Participants dressed in costume option 1 may also wear a blonde wig like the one worn by Eleven in the episode "Chapter Four: The Body".
- All participants must wear costumes that include the following items:
- OPTION 1:
- Pink dress with a white collar
- Knee socks
- White sneakers
- Blue jacket
- Nose bleeding makeup
- OPTION 2:
- Hospital gown
- Headgear covered in white wires (as depicted in the programme)
- Nose bleeding makeup
- Any other costumes must be submitted to Guinness World Records for approval prior to the event.
So, do you think you could serve up this record like Eleven serves up waffles? Then please - have a go and Be Part Of It, just watch out for Vecna!
Images: Courtesy of Netflix