If you think 200-plus million hours of viewing in one week is a lot, it is. But “Dahmer” did a massive 300 million hours the previous week. In its opening week, “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” shocked by delivering the biggest Week 1 results (196.2 million hours viewed) for any Netflix series (or film, for that matter) on record, English-language or otherwise. “Dahmer” debuted on a Wednesday, giving the Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan drama starring Evan Peters a two-day head start on many other Netflix premieres. With some variation, the streaming service typically premieres projects on Fridays.
“Dahmer” has now topped Netflix’s global Top 10 for three weeks in a row; it’s amassed 701.37 million hours viewed to date. Big dog “Stranger Things 4” tallied 1.35 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days, which is where Netflix cuts off its records. “The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” has nine days remaining to challenge for that No. 1 spot. From October 3-9, the No. 2 position on Netflix’s weekly list also belonged to Jeffrey Dahmer. Fellow limited series “Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes” drew 31.7 million hours viewed after just a few days of availability. (“Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes” ranked No. 10 on this installment of the weekly Top 10 list with 8.86 million hours viewed. “Stranger Things 4” was ninth with 9.42 million hours viewed.) “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” has clearly renewed fascination with the Milwaukee, Wisconsin serial killer who dominated headlines in the early 1990s. With that comes scrutiny from those affected by Dahmer’s 17 murders. Since debuting September 23, the series has trended on Twitter with fierce and divided reactions to its use of fact and fiction to tell Dahmer’s story. In addition to Peters, who doubles as an executive producer on the project, “Dahmer” also stars Richard Jenkins as Lionel Dahmer, Molly Ringwald as Shari Dahmer, and Michael Learned as Catherine Dahmer. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
