As though. like people are hungry for cannibalism stories because Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is formally one of the most achievement series ever for the streaming platform. Starring Evan Peters as the serial killer known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, the series explores the real-life story of Jeffrey Dahmer, one of the biggest monsters in United States history.
While current cable can measure popularity by knowing how many people turn on their TV for a new scene of any given series, things are harder on streaming.
First, since streaming content is available on demand, people can watch it when they feel like it, and not only on the release day and time. additionally, the number of hours watched is not a clear indicator of viewership because some series are longer than others.
For instance, Season 4 of Stranger Things had a feature-length scene, pushing the franchise’s total hours up for every person who decides to watch the whole season.
Considering this context, one of the best ways to measure a series’ success is to take the total hours viewed and divide it by the series’ total runtime. That way, we can better understand how many households tuned in for a show.
In the case of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the show has 496 million hours watched in two weeks. Dividing that by the series’ 8.8 hours runtime, we have a total of 56 million households fascinated by Peters’ take on the cannibal killer. For the sake of comparison, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is only behind Stranger Things 4 for the title of most watched English-language series in a week.
That impressive result attests to the series’ quality and our collective fascination with serial killers.
Made by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story explores how Dahmer was able to get away with his crimes for so long by targeting gay men and people of color, usually ignored by law enforcement.
Dahmer was arrested for killing at least 17 people between the years of 1978 and 1991, making him one of the deadliest serial killers in U.S. history. The series also stars Niecy Nash as Dahmer’s neighbor Glenda Cleveland, who first tried to get the attention of the police. The cast also added Richard Jenkins, Penelope Ann Miller, Molly Ringwald, Michael Learned, Colin Ford, and Shaun J. Brown.
On 21 September Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has been available on Netflix.