The fifth and final season of “Outer Banks” premieres Thursday, Aug. 20, on Netflix, bringing the streamer’s long-running teen adventure drama to a close after four seasons chronicling the Pogues’ treasure-hunting exploits along the fictional Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Unlike Season 4, which Netflix split into two separate release batches, all 10 episodes of Season 5 will drop simultaneously worldwide, allowing fans to binge the entire final season at once rather than waiting for a mid-season release of additional episodes.

For viewers in the United States, the season becomes available at the platform’s standard release time for Netflix Originals: 12 a.m. Pacific time, which translates to 3 a.m. Eastern time. Because the release happens globally at the same moment rather than at midnight local time in each region, the actual clock time viewers see the season appear will vary considerably depending on where they live. In India, for instance, the season is set to become available at 12:30 p.m. IST, according to Esquire India, reflecting the significant time zone offset between the U.S. West Coast and South Asia.

Season 5 picks up immediately following the events of the Season 4 finale, which left the Pogues reeling from the death of JJ, played by Rudy Pankow, during a mission in Morocco. According to Netflix’s official season description on Tudum, the final season finds the group “at their absolute breaking point” in the aftermath of that loss. With JJ gone and antagonist Chandler Groff, played by J. Anthony Crane, still at large with the legendary Blue Crown treasure, the remaining Pogues — John B, Sarah, Kiara, Pope and Cleo — are drawn into one final mission built around revenge, danger and their pursuit of the treasure, this time alongside an unlikely ally in Rafe Cameron, played by Drew Starkey.

The returning cast for the final season includes Chase Stokes as John B, Madelyn Cline as Sarah Cameron, Madison Bailey as Kiara, Jonathan Daviss as Pope, Carlacia Grant as Cleo, Drew Starkey as Rafe, along with Austin North, Fiona Palomo, J. Anthony Crane and Cullen Moss in key supporting roles. The series was created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke, who continue to serve as writers and executive producers on the final season.

In comments shared with Netflix’s Tudum ahead of the premiere, the show’s creators reflected on the emotional weight of closing out the series after four seasons. “We are over the moon to be setting out on one last trip with the Pogues,” Pate, Pate and Burke said. “Being back on set with our cast for this final round is nothing short of bittersweet and surreal. We can’t wait to show everyone what we have in store this season — it’s going to be a wild ride…”

Production on the final season began in June 2025 and wrapped in December 2025, with filming for the show’s concluding chapter taking the cast and crew to Croatia during the later stages of production, according to the Outer Banks Fandom wiki. The season was officially announced in November 2024, giving fans nearly two years to anticipate the show’s conclusion after its fourth season aired.

“Outer Banks” first premiered on Netflix in April 2020, quickly becoming a breakout hit for the streamer during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, as audiences gravitated toward the show’s mix of teen romance, treasure-hunting adventure and coastal setting. Across its first four seasons, the series has accumulated nearly 200 million views on the platform and has appeared on Netflix’s Top 10 English-language television list 25 separate times, according to figures cited by Tudum, underscoring the show’s sustained popularity throughout its run.

Season 4, the show’s most recent prior installment, saw the Pogues discover the legendary lost city of El Dorado before returning home to build what the group dubbed “Poguelandia 2.0,” a bait, tackle and charter-tour business. When financial difficulties threatened that new venture, the group agreed to help a wealthy client named Wes Genrette search for Blackbeard’s lost treasure, a pursuit that ultimately led them to the Blue Crown and set up the events now playing out in the final season.

Ahead of the full season’s release, Netflix offered fans an early preview of the show’s conclusion, releasing the first eight minutes of Season 5’s premiere episode in advance through the platform’s Tudum website, giving longtime viewers a taste of the emotional tone set to define the Pogues’ final adventure.

The show’s ending arrives alongside additional tie-in content tied to the series’ conclusion. A 25-track vinyl soundtrack compilation drawing from the show’s music across its run has been made available for pre-order, timed to coincide with the final season’s release and aimed at capturing what Tudum described as the “sun-drenched nostalgia” associated with the show’s coastal setting and soundtrack.

For fans wondering how to plan their viewing, the straightforward answer is that all 10 episodes will be accessible starting at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT in the United States, with international viewers seeing the season appear on their own local clocks according to the corresponding time difference from the West Coast release. Netflix has not indicated any staggered or region-specific release strategy for the final season, meaning the full 10-episode run should become available to subscribers everywhere within the same global release window.

As one of Netflix’s signature original series concludes its run, “Outer Banks” joins a small but notable group of the platform’s biggest hits to reach a planned final season in 2026, following a similar high-profile sendoff earlier this year for “Stranger Things.” With the Pogues’ fate now set to be revealed in full, fans eager to find out how the series resolves its central treasure hunt, along with the emotional fallout from JJ’s death, will be able to do so in a single sitting once the season becomes available early Thursday morning.