According to recent Netflix data, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story came extremely close to taking one of Stranger Things season 4’s crowns.
The extremely unsettling drama series gathered roughly 300 million hours of viewing time on Netflix in its second week, according to the streaming giant’s most recent round-up of its Top 10 TV program list(opens in new tab). This places it as the second-most viewed English-language original series in Netflix history during a seven-day span. The only English-language program that did better in a single week was Stranger Things season 4.
And that’s not all. The 299.84 million hours seen of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story for the week of September 26 to October 2 is a 65% increase over the amount of time watched during its opening week. For reference, the Netflix series saw 196.2 million hours of viewing in its first week after release. Since its release on Netflix, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has received 496.05 million hours of cumulative viewing time. According to the streamer, that is comparable to 56 million homes viewing the entire episode.
The fact that Monster is now the ninth-most watched Netflix program of all time is even more astonishing. To be sure, read that sentence again: The ninth most popular TV show on Netflix is Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Ever. And in just 12 days, that status was earned. Such statistics are unattainable for other popular Netflix series including The Umbrella Academy, You, Cobra Kai, and Shadow and Bone.
In terms of viewership, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story may surpass other extremely popular programs like The Witcher and Bridgerton. The Witcher season 2’s 484 million hours of viewing have already been exceeded, and that number was amassed in the 28 days after season 2’s release in December 2021. The Witcher season one (541 million hours), Bridgerton season one (625.49 million hours), and Bridgerton season two (656.16 million hours) were all surpassed by Monster in the first 28 days after their respective seasons’ releases.
In fact, Netflix’s Jeffrey Dahmer series has been so dominant that Dynasty season 5’s 44.6 million hours seen were a far second on the service’s most recent list of the Top 10 TV shows. Since Stranger Things 4 in August, The Sandman is the only Netflix original program to come close to matching either of Monster’s weekly statistics. Simply said, it proves that, given the right circumstances, any program has the potential to become a worldwide phenomenon. Just have a peek at Squid Game to see more evidence of that.
Below is the trailer of Dahmer: