Netflix’s Outer Banks Finale Shatters An IMDb Series Record

Outer Banks has set a new IMDb record with its series finale. The popular teen drama series originally kicked off in 2020, and went on to have five seasons in total. The Netflix series is set in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, following a group of teenagers who uncover mysterious secrets and engage in romances and more. The Outer Banks leading cast includes Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, and Drew Starkey.

Outer Banks ended on a high note with this final season, as its series finale has become the show’s highest-rated episode on IMDb in its five-season run. At the time of writing, the series holds a 9.0/10 on IMDb with over 700 reviews in for this individual episode thus far. This usurps the previous record, held by the Outer Banks season 2 finale, which has an 8.7 out of 10-star rating with over 2,500 user ratings.

The new Outer Banks personal record comes after a fairly successful final season overall. While the season premiere had a slower start with a 7.5 rating, the episodes get higher scores as they go along in the season. Two other episodes from Outer Banks season 5 join the series finale in the top 10 highest scoring episodes on IMDb.

There is a big rift thus far between users’ IMDb scores for Outer Banks season 5 and their Rotten Tomatoes scores. While the four critic reviews of this final season have all been on the positive side thus far, the season’s Popcornmeter is on the negative side, sitting at 39%. However, with less than 100 audience reviews on this platform, it seems like these Rotten Tomatoes users may simply be a vocal minority.

Nonetheless, the fact that the Outer Banks series finale has been so well-received will help leave the show with a strong legacy moving forward. With mega hit shows, it is easy for the finale to end up being a let-down for fans. For Netflix, this was true more recently with the ending of Stranger Things. The last two episodes of that series had 5.6 and 7.4 scores on IMDb, respectively, both failing to make the top 10 highest rated episodes of the series.

Ultimately, this IMDb record is great news for Outer Banks as a franchise. While the mothership series has wrapped up for good, a prequel spinoff of the show is already in the works. The positive reception for the final season will help propel the IP into its next installment, drawing in more viewership.