Jeffrey Dahmer on Netflix: how many people have seen Monster series - and how many hours have been watched?

Netflix has revealed that their controversial show, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, has officially become one of their most successful original series of all time.

The true crime drama series has secured its place in the streaming service’s English-speaking top 10 for a second week in a row, as well as being number one in 92 countries.

Since Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of the Jeffrey Dahmer murders was first released on 21 September, the limited show has broken records with an approximate 56 million households consuming the ten episodes.

Evan Peters is the latest to star as Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed 17 boys and men between 1978 and 1991, after several depictions of his crimes have been released in the past 30 years.

Ross Lynch starred as the Milwaukee Monster in the 2017 film My Friend Dahmer, while Jeremy Renner played the role in a 2002 limited release.

However, Peters’ “Monster” has made history by being watched a total of 496 million hours in its first two weeks and ranking ninth in the most-watched English-speaking series ever.

Anne E.Schwartz, the author of “Monster: The True Story of Jeffrey Dahmer Murders” and the reporter who broke the initial story about the criminal in 1991, said that people watch the series to find out “why” he committed such awful crimes.

She told E!News: “The interest in true crime, I’m not so quick to say it’s all very prurient and awful. I think we’re trying to find out why.”

“There is nothing about his background until we go back and really cherry-pick all we can, that makes us go, ‘Oh here’s the foreshadowing.”

Schwartz continued to suggest that we like “to play the blame game” to find the root of the evil murders.

Jeffrey Dahmer’s father, Lionel, claimed that his son’s behaviour may have been caused by his mother who took lots of medication while pregnant with him, before fleeing their family home and leaving Jeffrey behind.

He said on a CBS Inside Edition interview: “My ex-wife [Joyce] had been taking about 26 tablets of different medications about one month after becoming pregnant.”

Lionel was also portrayed in Netflix’s controversial series by Richard Jenkins alongside other cast members including Colin Ford, Niecy Nash-Betts and Penelope Ann Miller.

Despite the impressive viewing numbers, not everyone is a fan of the show, most notably the victims’ families who are being “re-traumatized” by its release.

Shirley Hughes, 85, the mother of Dahmer’s 12th victim Tony Hughes, has condemned the show that dramatises her son’s death in one of its episodes as well as casting people to play versions of themselves.

“It didn’t happen like that, I don’t see how they can do that. I don’t see how they can use our names and [put] stuff out like that,” Shirley told the Guardian.

Tony Hughes was a deaf and mute aspiring model when he met Dahmer in Wisconsin, whose story was depicted in the episode “Silenced”.