Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has joined the billion-hours viewed club.
The 10-episode limited series, executive produced by Ryan Murphy, has surpassed 1 billion viewing hours within 60 days since its debut on Netflix on Sept. 21. Evan Peters plays the infamous cannibalistic serial killer who lured his victims to his apartment. Dahmer pulled in 196.2 million hours viewed in its first week, becoming Netflix’s second most-watched English-language series of all time within 28 days. The series reached number one on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart in the first week of its release. In addition, it placed No. 7 on Nielsen’s all-time list for single-week viewership in its second week.
Dahmer is now the third Netflix series with over 1 billion hours viewed. Korean survival thriller Squid Game had 1.65 billion hours viewed, making it the most streamed Netflix program, and Stranger Things 4 is in second place with 1.35 billion hours viewed within its first month of release.
Even with its ratings success, Dahmer has been in the midst of controversy. Netflix removed the LGBTQ tag from the series after it sparked debate on social media by including a gay serial killer in the same category.
In addition, a victim’s survivor has also voiced her criticism of the series. Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsey, who was killed by Dahmer in 1991, stated in an essay for Insider that it bothered her to watch her victim impact statement from the murderer’s 1992 trial recreated in the program.