‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ Tops Netflix Again, But Ryan Murphy’s Anthology Is Showing Signs of Fatigue
Ryan Murphy’s true-crime anthology has become one of Netflix’s most dependable ratings engines. The franchise has racked up nearly 170 million views across all seasons, and the first season, ‘Dahmer‘, still ranks as the platform’s 7th most popular English-language TV series ever. Any conversation about ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ viewership has to start from that towering baseline.
The newest season landed on September 17, with Ella Beatty playing the woman charged with the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother. It opened with 12.1 million views in its first tracking week, nearly identical to the debuts of ‘The Ed Gein Story’ and ‘The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’.
Now the second week of data is in, and the headline number is big. ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ holds the No. 1 spot on Netflix this week with 14.5 million views, a 20% jump from its premiere week. The catch is that the chart circulating online shows it trailing every earlier season at the same point, which is where the talk of viewership fatigue comes from.
The chart shared by What’s on Netflix tells the story. ‘Dahmer’ went from 22 million views in week 1 to 33.6 million in week 2. ‘The Ed Gein Story’ climbed from 12.2 million to 20.7 million, and ‘The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ went from 12.3 million to 19.5 million.
‘The Lizzie Borden Story’ rose from 12.1 million to 14.5 million, a gain of just 2.4 million. By comparison, ‘The Ed Gein Story’ added 8.5 million and ‘The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ added 7.2 million over the same stretch.
The ‘Ed Gein’ season also gives Lizzie Borden a benchmark to watch. FanBolt’s tally has that season falling to 9.5 million views in week 3 and 2.8 million in week 4.
Netflix’s weekly charts run Monday through Sunday, and each season launched on a different day. ‘Dahmer’ arrived on a Wednesday, ‘The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ on a Thursday, ‘The Ed Gein Story’ on a Friday, and ‘The Lizzie Borden Story’ on a Thursday again. That changes how many days viewers had in each opening week.
Episode count matters too. ‘The Lizzie Borden Story’ has 8 episodes compared with 9 for the Menendez season, and the shorter runtime should help its view count because of how Netflix calculates views. Deadline also noted that the ‘Ed Gein’ season had one fewer day than ‘Lizzie Borden’ to build its debut number.
Audiences are watching, but critics have not been kind. Reviews for the season have been mixed to negative, and its critical consensus sits at “Rotten,” which sharply contrasts with its No. 1 ranking.
What’s on Netflix suggests that a strong link may exist between falling viewership and quality, given that review scores for this season are down substantially. Deadline, meanwhile, argued that appetite for the series appears to be waning, in line with Netflix’s well-documented struggle to retain audiences on its biggest continuing series.
Lizzie Borden took an axe…
— Bloody Disgusting (@BDisgusting) August 11, 2026
MONSTER: THE LIZZIE BORDEN STORY is coming to Netflix September 17.
Watch the official teaser trailer now. 🪓 pic.twitter.com/hZwix2icjX
None of this makes the season a flop. It ranked in the top 10 in 92 countries, up from 89 in week 1, and reached No. 1 in 36 countries, up from 16.
The competition was not close on the English TV chart either. ‘Wonka’s The Golden Ticket’ debuted at No. 2 with 4.6 million views, and ‘Crew Girl’ followed at No. 3 with 4.5 million. Across films, ‘Unabomber’ debuted at No. 1 with 16.4 million views.
How do you think the latest season's viewership numbers should be interpreted?
Have something to add? Let us know in the comments.
