The third season of Netflix’s hit sci-fi series Stranger Things is looming over the horizon like the Mind Flayer, set to turn TV screens upside down all across the country on Independence Day.
There’s no telling yet how many Americans plan to ditch the hot dogs and fireworks in favor of otherworldly monsters and girls with telekinetic powers, but it’s a safe bet that plenty of people will be watching.
According to a CivicScience poll of about 1,200 Netflix subscribers in late June, more than a quarter of Netflix’s 60 million U.S. users say they’re “very likely” to watch Stranger Things 3, and another 13% say they’re “somewhat likely” to tune in.
By our count, that puts the total number of people in the U.S. interested in watching at about 24 million. Not bad.
Take a look at some deeper insights CivicScience discovered about Stranger Things devotees:
Back to the Future?
It seems like the force of ‘80s nostalgia is strong with Gen X, but not so much with Baby Boomers. Gen Xers (43%) are likely to watch the show at rates comparable to those of Gen Z (48%) and Millennials (53%), but most Boomers couldn’t care less (20%).
They’re tuned in elsewhere, too:
Stranger Things watchers are more likely to watch and subscribe to other streaming TV services as well, giving Netflix plenty of competition for eyes and ears.
One more thing — people who were “very likely” to watch Stranger Things 3 were six times more likely to subscribe to HBO Now than people who were “not at all likely” to watch the upcoming season.
Thirty minutes or less:
People who were “very” or “somewhat” likely to watch Stranger Things 3 were also roughly 38% more likely to be favorable toward Domino’s Pizza than those who don’t want to watch the show. Joe Keery (Steve Harrington on Stranger Things) has already gotten on board with a Domino’s commercial, so let’s keep up the momentum. Maybe the Duffer Brothers can deliver us a delightfully awkward Wheeler family “pizza night” scene in Season 4.
And maybe Seth Rogen can play the pizza guy:
Favorability toward Seth Rogen is absolutely raging among Stranger Things fans, so it just makes sense.
I call being ‘Will the Wise’:
Netflix announced at this year’s E3 video gaming convention that it will release a Stranger Things mobile game in 2020. But with a whopping 62% of the show’s biggest fans saying they play console video games at least occasionally, the time may be right to license the rights for a full-fledged console adventure.