Netflix proves crime really does pay as not even 3 billion viewing minutes can keep ‘Fool Me Once’ at #1

If Netflix execs made their New Year Resolution to kick off 2024 with a massive hit then they definitely succeeded. Fool Me Once, the streamer’s latest thriller series based on a book by best-selling author Harlan Coben, became the internet’s most popular TV show of January. It seems once viewers hopped on the Fool Me Once train, there was just no getting off until they had binged all eight episodes and found out who really killed Maya Stern’s sister and if her husband Joe really was alive or not.

And yet streaming success is a fickle thing. While movies like, say, Barbie can dominate theaters for weeks on end, popular films and TV shows on Netflix often find a much more fleeting form of fame. The platform naturally releases a barrage of new original content each and every week so once users have gorged themselves on one series they simply move on to another, which means that Netflix’s top 10 charts are in a constant state of flux. Sure enough, just over a month after its arrival, Fool Me Once‘s crown has been well and truly stolen by Netflix’s newest must-see show.

Fool Me Once is streaming’s biggest hit since Suits, but Griselda is Netflix user’s new drug of choice

As per Flix Patrol, the most-watched TV show on Netflix worldwide right now isn’t Fool Me Once but Griselda. Debuting on Jan. 25, the crime drama has clearly hooked viewers in with its dark and compelling narrative about Griselda Blanco, the real-life Colombian drug lord who rose up to become the most dangerous woman in Miami in the 1980s. The six-parter accrued a criminally impressive 113.8 million viewing minutes across its first three days on the site.

And yet that’s nothing compared to Fool Me Once‘s own mind-blowing milestone of an entrance onto the scene. Across its first week on Netflix, the series amassed just over 3 billion viewing minutes, which makes it the biggest success for the platform since the Suits renaissance and the most popular streaming original anywhere since before the strikes. Still, you can’t keep the gold medal forever and it’s currently down to the bronze place on the charts, behind Griselda and docuseries Alexander: The Making of a God.

That said, Fool Me Once may have won the viewing figures war but Griselda has the critical reception battle in the bag. The crime drama is sitting at a fetching 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Sofia Vergara garnering much of the praise for her committed central performance, which couldn’t be any more different from her many years on Modern Family. Meanwhile, Fool Me Once dwells at just 69%, with audiences even less forgiving, awarding it a mere 45%. A steep decline from Griselda‘s strong 73% from users.

Fool Me Once‘s stranglehold on streaming is over, but Griselda‘s own storyline warns us that being at the top of the food chain is only a temporary state.