With true crime more popular than ever, Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story continues to break records at Netflix. Debuting on the streaming platform in September, the series comes from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. Evan Peters stars in one of his most acclaimed performances yet as Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial killer and necrophiliac who cannibalized many victims during a reign of terror that lasted from the late 70s to the early 90s.
According to a new report, Dahmer remains firmly in the top spot for the most-watched English TV shows of the week for Netflix. This is the third week in a row Dahmer as been No. 1 in that spot, drawing more than 205 million hours streamed from Oct. 3 through Oct. 9. Altogether, more than 701 million hours of Dahmer have been streamed globally, putting it as the second most popular English-language series on Netflix. Only Stranger Things 4, with 1.35 billion hours earned in its first month of release, stands above Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
If we factor in non-English language shows, then Squid Game is the title that holds the top spot as the all-time most popular TV show on Netflix. The South Korean series managed to reach a whopping 1.65 billion hours streamed within 28 days. The Spanish crime drama Money Heist is another popular series with part five of that show surpassing 792 million hours. That would put Dahmer at No. 4 on the overall list, just above the second season of Bridgerton.
A True Crime Boom Led to Dahmer's Success on Netflix
Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story benefitted from coming out at a time when true crime could not be more popular. Netflix will be exploring more with Dahmer as well with the docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer tapes coming to the streaming platform this month. That follows previous Conversations with a Killer series on Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. Netflix also debuted the film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile in 2019 with Zac Efron playing the part of Bundy.
But for whatever reason, Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story had more appeal than any of the previous true crime offerings on Netflix. An acclaimed performance by Evan Peters in the lead role is certainly one reason why fans have been tuning in. There has also been tremendous publicity surrounding the series, even though much of it has been due to controversy, but altogether, the headlines have been raising a lot more awareness and interest for the show. Chances are, we'll be seeing a lot more true crime content coming to Netflix and elsewhere in the future, regardless of recent backlash.
You can stream Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix.