‘Monster’ Roars Onto Netflix as One of Streamer’s Most-Watched Series Ever

All press really is good press. Despite all of the negative buzz surrounding Dahmer: Monster – The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the Ryan Murphy true crime series has emerged as one of Netflix‘s most popular series ever.

Monster, which first premiered on Netflix Sept. 21, has already pushed past the competition and become one of the hottest shows on the streamer with 299.84 million hours viewed during its second week, according to an email sent out by Netflix today.

The staggering stat places Monster just behind Netflix’s most recent crown jewel, Stranger Things Season 4, in the weekly ranking of most watched English-language series.

But most impressive is Monster‘s overall ranking on Netflix. Its massive viewership numbers skyrocketed the series into the streamer’s Most Popular List, which ranks the most watched TV series based on the amount of hours they are viewed in their first 28 days on Netflix. Currently, Monster sits at ninth place with 496.05 million hours viewed, landing just above Ozark Season 4, per Netflix.

The streamer also calculated that Monster has been viewed by 56 million households in the less than two weeks since it premiered.

This is all despite the harsh backlash the show has received, specifically from victims’ families — who say they’ve been re-traumatized by Monster and allege they were not contacted by Netflix — and more recently, a crew member who alleged she was “treated horribly” while working on the series.

While the show has been mired in controversy since before it even hit Netflix, Decider’s Kayla Cobb praised Monster for its sensitive portrayal of a difficult subject, praising the series for not “glorifying” Dahmer, but instead “prioritizing accuracy and always centering the victims’ stories above Dahmer’s.”

Monster stars Evan Peters as the titular serial killer, and also features Richard Jenkins, Molly Ringwald and Niecy Nash-Betts. All episodes are now streaming on Netflix.