Jeffrey Dahmer series smashes Netflix records with biggest ever opening week for a new show

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Netflix’s Jeffrey Dahmer biopic series has had the best opening week of any new TV show on the streamer.

Created by Ryan Murphy, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story stars American Horror Story’s Evan Peters as the notorious mass murderer and cannibal.

The true-crime show has been met with controversy, with many Netflix viewers admitting to finding the series’ gruesome murder scenes too much to handle.

A relative of one of Dahmer’s victims also accused the series of “retraumatising” their family with the show.

However, Netflix viewers still flocked to watch Dahmer, with the show being streamed for 196.2 million hours in its first week of availability after being released on Wednesday (21 September).

This makes Dahmer the platform’s most watched new show ever in its first week.

Netflix’s weeks run from Monday to Sunday, meaning that Dahmer’s first week was only five days long.

However, as Dahmer was released on a Wednesday, it had two days longer than most Netflix shows, which usually come out on Fridays.

Earlier this week, Netflix removed a tag sorting the series into its LGBTQ content category following online backlash.

Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between the years 1978 and 1991. He was arrested in 1991 and was murdered in prison three years later.

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is on Netflix now.