Recently published BARB figures show Amandaland tops the UK viewing chart for the week of Christmas Day (ahead of Stranger Things)

Statistics can prove almost anything, and in this case we’ll show how the Amandaland Christmas Special was more popular that Stranger Things.

What exactly are the numbers as Amandaland tops the chart

First up, we’re talking the 7-day numbers here in the UK as made available by BARB. You may have to pick the relevant date, in this case the week ending December 28. Here’s the top 10:

So, Amandaland tops the list, even above His Majesty. A good result for The Scarecrow’s Wedding and the first part of Call the Midwife managed fourth, with the second part ninth. Meanwhile those Stranger Things episodes managed eighth and tenth. As fans of cozy crime in the Caribbean, we were also pleased to see the Death in Paradise Christmas special take fifth place above Strictly Come Dancing.

Should separate episodes of shows be added together? That’s what the Neilsens do even across seasons, whereas Netflix calculates a metric for views of season tranches. We might assume (as an example) most of the same people watch both episodes, so here in the UK it seems Stranger Things didn’t quite dominate.

Of course another viewpoint would be it’s a huge success for a streaming show via subscription takes such a high chart position at all vs broadcast (and streamed eg by iPlayer) shows. As ever you can use statistics to prove many things. Meantime let’s just agree the Amandaland special was rather good and leave it at that.