Albuquerque residents also appreciate the way the show captured sites that inspire confusion or awe—like the John B. Robert dam, a concrete structure that played a role in the show’s Emmy-winning episode “Ozymandias.” “I would pass by it every day when I took my daughter to school and started to see tourists standing there with their luggage and taking pictures,” Albuquerque-based photographer Cary Brooks remembered. The onlookers continued showing up even years after the finale aired—though he says that recently, he has seen fewer of them.

Breaking Bad shot frequently at local businesses as well, like a spacious branch of the local chain Twisters—which filled in for Los Pollos Hermanos, meth boss Gus Fring’s drug-front-cum-chicken-joint. That Twisters still has the Los Pollos Hermanos sign hanging inside the restaurant today. To mark the anniversary, two Albuquerque-based fans are paying to transform the restaurant back into Los Pollos Hermanos on Saturday, January 20—and offering to buy burritos for any cast member of prequel Better Call Saul who shows up to celebrate.

A colorful Los Pollos Hermanos chicken logo remains on the wall inside Twisters. By Steve Snowden/Getty Images.

It’s difficult to tell empirically if Breaking Bad actually did attract more tourists to New Mexico. According to the data used by New Mexico True, the state tourism department, tourism definitely increased after 2011—though that was also a nationwide trend that correlates with of the end of a recession. Thanks to Route 66, New Mexico has always had a higher rate of pass-through tourism than most states, and all of the major Breaking Bad sites are located within the corridor where 74 percent of tourist attractions in New Mexico are located, anyway.

Still, there’s evidence that the nature of tourism has changed in New Mexico in the years since Breaking Bad. Since 2011, a higher proportion of visitors haven taken overnight trips to the state. Before 2011, when asked to name their primary purpose in New Mexico, a majority of visitors said “outdoor activity”; since then, more and more visitors have identified “cultural activity.” And the average age of tourists dropped in 2013, the year the Breaking Bad finale aired, before moving up again the next year—implying that Breaking Bad did bring a younger group to the state, at least while the mania was still fresh.

According to Ann Lerner, head of the City of Albuquerque Film Office, the primary impact that Breaking Bad had on the city was less about raw numbers than brand awareness. “Around the country, people can spell Albuquerque now,” she says.

Even so, the companies that run Breaking Bad tours in Albuquerque often sell out to this day. And Breaking Bad pilgrims still swarm some locations often enough to cause problems: in 2017, the owners of the house that served as the White residence on the show erected a six-foot-high fence around their home to discourage gawkers, especially those that try to replicate a beloved Season 3 moment in which Walt angrily tosses a pizza onto the roof. In 2015, Brooks, the photographer, decided to approach the family to ask if he could take some drone footage of their house, after tourist-spotting led to a fascination with the legacy of Breaking Bad. He chatted amiably with the husband for a while, who seemed confused about his project.

“A few minutes later, the wife drove up in her car,” Brooks remembers. “When she saw me, she yelled ‘CLOSE THE DOOR! GET AWAY FROM THE HOUSE!’ out of her car window.” He made an attempt to explain, but the wife wouldn’t have it. They got enough attention already.

Bryan Cranston sits by the John B. Roberts Dam in an episode entitled “Ozymandias,” 2013. By Ursula Coyote/AMC/Everett Collection.

Breaking Bad’s hold on Albuquerque is connected to the show’s critical acclaim—Cranston won four Emmys for his performance. But it also has a lot to do with Netflix. In fact, when Gilligan accepted the Emmy for best drama in 2013, he told reporters afterward that he credited streaming video for the survival of the show past its second season. The continued influx of tourists four years after the show’s finale likely has a lot to do with the show’s nonstop availability on the service.