I can only offer a personal anecdote as explanation, but I don't have the time or mental bandwidth to keep up with all the multi-season shows and new releases as they come out. I need to space them out throughout the year to make sure I'm enjoying them all and will often come back to stuff months after it has fully released. If a new season is being released in a weekly format (or even worse in the case of Stranger Things), I won't count towards its initial viewing figures.

A show like Avatar is something I will get around to eventually, but I'm not going to drop everything and obsessively watch a new season from day one. Another show I really like, Sugar on Apple TV, is one that I feel works better as a binge watch so I will wait until its weekly run is over before I slot it in. One of the few shows I do actually watch week by week from day one at the moment is House of the Dragon on HBO, because it's a big enough spectacle with long enough episodes and enough weekly talking points, that it's a better experience for me when prioritised like that.

Of course, I don't pay for Netflix, Apple TV or HBO and wouldn't count towards their metrics anyway, but I wonder if their actual customers are doing something similar. These companies seem very quick to jump to conclusions about seasonal viewership declines and don't seem to see the value in overlooking short-term losses to prioritise the creation of a complete show that will keep people coming back for years after it has concluded.