The third iteration of Netflix’s Monster anthology started its run in the same place as the previous two: at the top of the streaming charts.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story led Nielsen’s rankings for the week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5 with 1.53 billion viewing minutes (it premiered Oct. 3). That’s a little behind the 1.72 billion minutes for the Menendez brothers-focused second season in 2024 (which, in turn, was well off the pace of 2022’s first season, which had a huge debut of more than 3.6 billion minutes of watch time).
Coming in second place was Wayward, which grew by 54 percent over its premiere week on Netflix to 1.3 billion minutes of viewing. It was the only other title to clear the billion-minute threshold for the week.
As the 2025-26 broadcast TV season kicked into gear, several network shows with big libraries posted week to week gains as viewers caught up on past seasons or watched the first episodes of new ones. The 817 million minutes of viewing for NCIS (across three platforms) were the most for the show since June, and Law & Order (768 million) grew by 19 percent week to week. Law & Order: SVU (631 million) charted for the first time in three weeks.
Amid those gains, however, one of the longer streaks in the five-year history of Nielsen’s streaming charts ended. Grey’s Anatomy fell off the rankings for the first time since June 2023, a run of 120 weeks.
Prime Video’s Play Dirty, starring Mark Wahlberg, led the movie rankings with 788 million viewing minutes. It ended a three-week run in the No. 1 spot for KPop Demon Hunters, but the Netflix smash didn’t fall far, racking up another 731 million minutes of watch time to finish second among all streaming films.
Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries. The top streaming titles for Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2025, are below.
