Nostalgia’s a hell of a thing, and in the battle between literal reproductions of things you liked as a kid and things devoted to evoking the same feeling as the things you liked as a kid, it seems like Netflix is ready to declare a winner. In the latter corner is Stranger Things, a sci-fi/horror coming-of-age story set in the ’80s about a group of kids befriending a girl with superpowers and fighting off a monster. In the other corner is Fuller House, the sequel series to the classic sitcom about overcoming grief with the help of your wacky friends and wacky children. Both were wildly successful, but according to Variety, Fuller House was slightly more successful.
Granted, Netflix still doesn’t make a habit of announcing viewership numbers for its shows, so this information comes from a third party, Symphony Advanced Media. But it’s probably as accurate as we’re going to get. Either way, the report says that Fuller House and season four of Orange Is The New Black (which doesn’t line up with our “nostalgia” theme, so let’s ignore it) were the two most-watched Netflix originals to debut this year, with Stranger Things coming in third place. Apparently, the amount of fun that the internet had with Stranger Things just wasn’t enough to beat the world’s fascination with the Tanner family and its fondness for having a bunch of people live together in the same house.
Of course, the most important part of all of this is that Fuller House is now officially a better show than Stranger Things, and if you feel differently, then your opinion is factually incorrect. That may be frustrating to hear, but that’s just how TV works.