Netflix’s Dahmer Series Has Broken Another Record
Viewers have watched close to 500 million hours of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix.
Netflix has another mega hit on its hands, according to numbers reported by Deadline. Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story just finished its second week on the streaming service, and is already ranked alongside other hits like Stranger Things among Netflix’s top ten English-language series, with nearly 500 million hours viewed by subscribers. The series, from creator Ryan Murphy (Glee) tells the incredible story of how the notorious serial killer (played by Evan Peters) managed to kill and dismember 17 men and boys in a thirteen year period, without being detected or captured.
The ten-part series made its debut on September 21, and its true-crime content (already a popular subject on Netflix) and critically-acclaimed performance by Peters gave it positive buzz immediately. It ranked in the top ten on day one, and by the end of its first week, it had racked up 196.2 million hours watched. Those were record-setting numbers for the series, which only Stranger Things and Squid Game had managed to surpass.
Before the end of its second week on Netflix, Dahmer added another 299.84 million hours watched. Only Stranger Things has earned more hours watched in a week on the streaming service, among English-language series (Squid Game, a Korean-language series, is Netflix’s biggest series by far). So far, Dahmer has been estimated to have been viewed in over 56 million households in less than two weeks.
In 2018, Ryan Murphy left Fox, where he had created several it shows like Glee, and signed a $300 million development deal with Netflix. He created six series and movies for the service, including Ratched, Hollywood, Halston, and most recently, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. Most of those projects were moderate successes, but Dahmer has finally given Netflix the hit they were hoping for when they gave Murphy the richest development deal in television history.
Murphy cast Peters, who appeared in his other hit series American Horror Story, to play Jeffrey Dahmer. The Netflix series not only tells Dahmer’s backstory, it details how authorities never caught on to the killing spree and multiple missed opportunities to catch him.
Dahmer has already passed other Netflix hits in hours viewed, and by the end of its first month, could surpass Bridgerton, Ozark, 13 Reasons Why, and Lucifer into Netflix’s top five English-language series of all time. Dahmer currently ranks #1 on the streamer, and 660% ahead of the next most popular series on Netflix, the fifth season of Dynasty, in terms of hours watched.
The Netflix series has succeeded despite a number of controversies. Dahmer was criticized by members of the LGBTQ community after the streamer tagged it under the “LGBTQ” category, which many found insensitive. Even though the series focuses largely on Dahmer’s crimes against LGBTQ persons, activists felt it was a poor inclusion to the category, and Netflix eventually removed the tag.
The Netflix series also stars Richard Jenkins, Molly Ringwald, Michael Learned, and Niecy Nash as Dahmer’s neighbor, who long tried to bring authorities’ attention to him. The entire Ryan Murphy Collection can be viewed on Netflix by clicking right here.
