Stranger Things, S5 E7 “The Bridge” coordinated review bombing.

It has not been automatically defeated if this was allowed to happen.   

@Frances_Milena​ I really hope steps are taken because mass review campaigns undermine the reliability of a rating system.

Episode 7 has 60k+ ratings which is insanely high compared to episode 5 and 6 (which has 30-35k ratings as of now). And even now there is a sudden burst of 1 star ratings for those episodes although it's not as much as the hate campaign for 7

@sambennett​ Why aren’t IMDB doing anything about the severe review bombing.

There is lot of evidence on reddit, twitter/X and facebook encouraging to vote 1/10 to review bomb volume 2.

This first affected heavely episode 7, and now episode 5 and 6 have suddenly started dropping because of mass review bombing.

IMDB clearly have no mechanism to atop this, no integrity and no will in fixing this.

IMDB let an increadible show be ruined by downvoted, because Bylers couldn’t accept Mike not being gay. And the scores for 5,6 and 7 are now not a reflection of actually quality, as it’s being downvoted by thousands of peoples who hasn’t even seem the episodes or stranger things.

This is insane that IMDB let review bombing happen, and it’s so severe now that IMDB can’t be trusted when they actually encourage and applaud review bombing, by letting the review bombers win.

IMDB team have to do something, and adjust the scores back to what they were before the review bombing started.

@Frances_Milena​ your safe guard does not work. Your safe guard just encourages people to review bombing, when nothing happens.

IMDB have to do something. Now all three episodes from volume 2 experience severe review bombing, and IMDB just let it happen. The three episodes just continue to drop, not because of actually reviews from user that have seem the episodes, but because of a massive smearing campagin from Bylers. 

IMDB can’t be trusted with reviews or relability anymore, when they let this happen.

I hope this gets investigated and actually fixed. And that all three episodes get the rating back, which they had before this massive review bombing.

And I hope there actually are actions to stop this for episode 8, because we know now that the review bombing have spread to all 3 episodes, and will most likely continue to episode 8, if IMDB doesn’t take actions.

This is outrageous that IMDB just let it happen.

@GengarGeng​ 

Update: The rating for Episode 7 (“The Bridge”) has continued to decline even further since this was acknowledged, and Episodes 5 and 6 are still following the same pattern.

This confirms the issue is ongoing and not the result of organic viewer reception. If safeguards are in place, they are clearly not taking effect in real time.

This further highlights the need for investigation and correction, especially with Episode 8 approaching.

@GengarGeng​ 

I agree, this is no longer limited to Episode 7.

There is clear evidence across Reddit, X/Twitter, and other platforms encouraging mass 1★ voting against Volume 2. Episode 7 was hit first, and Episodes 5 and 6 have now started dropping in the same sudden, unnatural way.

This pattern doesn’t reflect normal audience reception or episode quality. It points to coordinated review bombing, not genuine viewer feedback.

If safeguards exist, they don’t appear to be working in this case. The ratings for Episodes 5, 6, and 7 no longer represent fair or organic audience response, and that undermines trust in the system.

This needs to be properly investigated and corrected, especially with Episode 8 still to come.

@GengarGeng​ 

I sincerely hope the action is being delayed because they’re waiting for the surge to end.

And I feel your frustration completely. IMDb was literally how I discovered stranger things in 2014, so this whole situation has drastically changed my perspective on the platform’s reliability for future.

Also I agree, it’s definitely a thing where non-fans are participating cos how on earth has the last episode in particular garnered the same amount of ratings (60k) that episode 4 had despite 4 being released a month ago? 

IMDb shouldn’t allow non-users to infiltrate the system so easily. Especially when the ratings don’t reflect the episode quality but a foolish “woke” agenda. 

I hope they’re able to note the pattern of persistent 1’s over the days and tally them out and give the episode along with the previous two the ratings it would’ve gotten had it not been manipulated.

@sambennett​ 

I strongly agree, the timing and volume of the ratings make this especially suspicious.

It’s difficult to explain how Episode 7 accumulated a comparable number of votes to Episode 4, which had been available far longer, without some form of external coordination. That discrepancy alone suggests the surge isn’t organic.

From a quality standpoint, Episode 4 is widely regarded as one of the show’s strongest installments, and in my view Episodes 5, 6, and 7 are very much in that same tier in terms of writing, performances, and production. The sharp divergence in their ratings doesn’t align with that reality.

Hopefully IMDb is closely tracking these abnormal voting patterns and will correct the scores once the surge stabilizes, so the ratings reflect genuine audience reception rather than coordinated campaigns.

That's what I hope too. I've checked rotten tomatoes and it's completely wrecked. The whole season is under 55% now there....and if you check the audience reviews, you will understand who are actually reviewing it. It's not even because of the shipping wars.

I hope that episode 8 isn't affected so highly. It will be affected I expect, but hope that review bombing isn't so massive as this episode. Actual steps should be taken after the surge is over in 1 or 2 days.

@RF17​ I agree with you. I genuinely enjoyed vol 2 (and am especially intrigued by the wormhole which not enough people are talking about). I’m satisfied with the character arcs being resolved in time for the finale for which I’m highly anticipating. 

The ratings don’t reflect the quality of the episodes in the slightest and thus need to be amended largely. 

I trust IMDb can fix this like they have with attack on titan episodes when they were being mass review bombed by one piece fans to lower the overall ranking on top episodes.

@sambennett​ 

When I was writing my first comment on this thread, ep 7 had around 60k ratings. Now it's up to 67k with most being 1 stars. It's actually horrible how bad the situation is

@sambennett​  People have now counter review bombed to even out the 1 star review bombing, but over all score has not raised again.

This shows that IMDBs fall safe doesn’t work, because it does not kick in when an episode gets unfair review bombed by 1 stars by people who havn’t even watched the show.

And when people who actually has seen the episode, and liked it, counter review with 10s to null out the review bombing, the false safe kick in, and ends up encouraging review bombing with 1s.

When 1 and 10 are even, both should be removed in the counting so the scores between 2-9 give the episode a fair score. Because this is not fair, because here 1 and 10 are even in numbers, but tye 1s count heavier. Rigged and biased. This have to be fixed.

@Frances_Milena​ Please address the latest updates provided by RF17, this has taken too long for there to be no update or huge adjustments made from the data you’ve been given 

  @Frances_Milena​  

When people review bomb episode 7 with 1 star review, rating are affected.

In the last two days people have counter voted 10 to even out the 1 star review bombs, but it does not affect the score.

In the last days episode 7 have received roughly 24K 10 star reviews, but the score has NOT raised, and NOT been affected.

Meaning the 1 star reviews count, but not 10 star reviews.

This is outrageous, biased and unprofessional. When the fans try to even out, and cancel the review bombing. IMDB instead weight the 1 star review bombing from people who havn’t even seen the show, higher than the counter votes from people who actually enjoyed and liked the episode.

This has to be sorted out, if not, we can’t trust IMDB scores at all. When all the 1 star reviews weight on the score, all 10 star reviews should count as well.

When episode 7 hit 5.4, it had 20K more 1 star than 10 star reviews. And now there are more 10 star reviews, and the score hasn’t even changed. This is insane, if episode 7 score isn’t increased by this, it means IMDB are political and biased, and that noke scores on here should be trusted. 

Please answer and do not ignore this message too.

@Frances_Milena​ 

you or any of the IMDb members have done nothing about the reviewbombing on season 5 of stranger things AND the finale is now being reviewbombed heavily. please fix this, the finale deserves at LEAST a 9.6-9.8.