Monster’s Lizzie Borden Draws Over 500,000 Monthly Searches, Study Finds

Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has given viewers another reason to revisit a case that has resisted a definitive answer for more than a century. A search analysis from VIP-Grinders puts the scale of that interest at 532,400 average monthly U.S. searches across Lizzie Borden-related terms.

That places Borden fifth among the 16 true-crime figures included in the study. It also amounts to roughly 43% of the search volume recorded for Jeffrey Dahmer, whose case launched Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s anthology.

The findings arrive as prediction market traders weigh the Netflix drama’s chances of topping Google’s year-end television list. They also raise a question familiar to anyone following the franchise: which case could become the subject of a future season?

Lizzie Borden Ranks Fifth in the Search Study

VIP-Grinders says it examined Google search volumes across all 50 states, combining names with related searches, including picture queries and familiar nicknames. Its figures were recorded as of October 13, 2026.

Borden’s estimated monthly total exceeds those for Dennis Rader and Richard Ramirez. Dahmer leads the figures supplied, with more than 1.2 million searches, followed by Ted Bundy at just over 1 million.

Selected figures from VIP-Grinders’ 16-person analysis. Totals represent grouped search terms, not individual people or Netflix viewers.

Borden also needs to be distinguished from the convicted murderers in that table. She was accused of killing her father and stepmother in 1892 and acquitted the following year. The murders remain unsolved. Netflix’s dramatization offers its own interpretation, and GVN’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story fact-versus-fiction breakdown examines where the series departs from the historical record.

The study does not establish how much of the search activity Netflix caused. It measures interest around these names, which can also come from documentaries, news coverage, school assignments or questions about the cases themselves.

Ted Bundy Leads the Untapped Names, but Murphy Has Said No

Among the figures in the study who have not been the central subject of a Monster season, Bundy has the highest search volume. That does not make him the likely next choice.

In a 2025 interview with Variety, reported by TVLine, Murphy said he had decided against a Bundy season because he did not see the broader social questions he wanted to explore.

“When you look at those crimes, what are the themes there?” Murphy said. “It doesn’t ask you any questions about society.”

Remove Bundy from the comparison and John Wayne Gacy has the largest search total among the remaining names highlighted as possible future subjects, at 778,350 per month. Charles Manson follows with 668,050, ahead of Rader and Ramirez.

Those numbers explain why the researchers singled out Gacy. They do not amount to a casting announcement, a production plan or evidence that Netflix is choosing its next subject through search rankings.

Where Monster Stood in the October 14 Prediction Market Snapshot

VIP-Grinders’ October 14 snapshot placed Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story at approximately 11% in Polymarket’s market for the top television entry in Google’s 2026 Year in Search. The researchers put its early-August starting price at around 2%.

At that October 14 reading, Euphoria was at 26% and Stranger Things at 16%, followed by Monster. The market had recorded more than $124,000 in trading volume across more than 45 titles. These are historical figures supplied with the study, not current prices.

João Mourato, Head of iGaming Product at VIP-Grinders, linked the research to the company’s Prediction Markets Report:

“Entertainment is a small corner of prediction markets, just 0.6% of Kalshi and Polymarket volume over the last twelve months in our tracking, and traders tend to hold these positions rather than trade in and out of them. Markets like this move on attention, which is why we look at what Americans are actually searching for.”

The two sets of figures measure different things. The search study covers U.S. queries about people, while the market concerns a global television list. Google also describes its Year in Search trending lists in terms of sustained increases in search traffic compared with the previous year. A large monthly search total alone cannot establish which show will finish first.

California Leads Total Searches, While Michigan Stands Out Per Capita

California recorded the largest total in the study’s state comparison, with 374,300 monthly searches across its selected names. Texas followed closely at 369,350. Ramirez was the most-searched name in California, Florida and New York, while Rader led in Texas.

The researchers excluded Dahmer, Borden and Manson from this state table. It therefore uses a different selection of names from the national comparison above.

States are ordered by total searches, with ties broken by searches per 100,000 residents. VIP-Grinders says its population adjustments use U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates.

Michigan has the highest per-capita figure among these ten states, despite ranking eighth by total volume. Bundy leads the selected-name searches in six of the ten. Neither result tells us why people searched or whether they want to watch a television adaptation.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, starring Ella Beatty, is streaming on Netflix. For viewers finishing the series, the more immediate question may be how much of it really happened.

Methodology: Search estimates and state rankings were supplied by VIP-Grinders and dated October 13, 2026. The supplied methodology does not identify the search-volume tool or the period used to calculate the monthly averages. Prediction market figures cited here are the company’s October 14 snapshot. The study is not a Netflix audience report or a survey of viewers’ preferred future seasons.