By Selome Hailu
Variety Entertainment News Service
HOLLYWOOD — “Dahmer -- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” continues to set viewership records for Netflix. The Ryan Murphy-created series debuted on the streamer on Sept. 21, and by the 60-day mark on Nov. 20, it had clocked more than one billion hours of viewing.
[Read a letter to the American public: Know the monster if you must – but know the protectors too]
Only two other titles in Netflix history have been able to achieve the same: “Squid Game” in 2021 and Season 4 of “Stranger Things” earlier this year. Both reached that milestone within their first month. Netflix measures its charts of its most popular series and films of all time based on each project’s viewership during its first 28 days of availability, and “Squid Game” remains No. 1 with 1.65 billion hours viewed while “Stranger Things” Season 4 is the most popular English-language title with 1.35 billion.
“Monster” nabbed its third place overall position after just three weeks of availability on Netflix even though it hadn’t reached one billion yet. It first entered the Most Popular chart for English-language TV at No. 9 with 491.1 million hours after just 12 days of streaming, then jumped to No. 2 the following week with 701.4 million hours. (Because “Squid Game” is in Korean, it charts on a separate list.)
The series, which stars Evan Peters as the titular serial killer, also remained at No. 1 on Netflix’s weekly Top 10 list for three weeks -- the first title to beat it also came from Ryan Murphy: limited series “The Watcher” -- and stayed on the chart for seven weeks.
[Watch: Jeffrey Dahmer’s last interview]
Nielsen’s third-party assessment of “Monster” viewership was also impressive. The series’ debut with 3.7 billion minutes viewed brought in the 10th biggest streaming week ever since the beginning of the measurement company’s weekly streaming rankings. Then it went on to beat its own record, with its second week becoming Nielsen’s No. 7 biggest streaming week with 4.4 billion minutes.
Though “Monster” was originally intended as a limited series, in November Netflix renewed it for two more seasons. As an anthology, each season of “Monster” will follow “other monstrous figures who have impacted society.”
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