Baby Reindeer on track to join ranks of Stranger Things and Wednesday in Netflix popularity

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Baby Reindeer is on track to become one of Netflix’s most popular shows of all time, new data reveals.

The biographical series, written by and starring comedian Richard Gadd, follows struggling comic Donny Dunn (Gadd) as he is relentlessly harassed and stalked by Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning) for more than four years.

Since the seven-episode show’s release on 11 April, it has become a word-of-mouth sensation, shooting to the top of the streaming service’s most-watched charts with very little promotion.

In its third week on the platform, Baby Reindeer racked up 18.6 million views (from 29 April to 5 May). This takes its total to 56.5 million views in just 26 days.

The series now needs just 27 million more views in the next 65 days of its 91-day premiere window to enter the top 10 most-watched Netflix shows of all time, joining the ranks of Stranger Things and Wednesday.

Currently, the tenth most-watched show is The Witcher, season one, with 83 million views. Ninth is Bridgerton season two with 93.8 million views. At the top of the table is Wednesday season one, boasting a whopping 252.1 million views, followed by Stranger Things 4 with 140.7 million views.

Baby Reindeer’s unprecedented success has caused headaches for creator Gadd as fans attempt to discover the real-life inspirations behind the show’s controversial characters. Last week, Pointless co-host Richard Osman claimed that “everyone” in the comedy industry knows who the abuser depicted in the show is.

Gadd has been forced to shut down speculation surrounding the real-life identity of a character that groomed and sexually assaulted him – a traumatic event from Gadd’s life – as it led to false accusations being made by curious viewers.

Gadd’s co-star Jessica Gunning (Martha) has also urged viewers to enjoy the show on its own merits without doing research into the people who inspired the characters. “That’s not the point of it in any way,” she said.

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“Netflix and Richard [Gadd] went to extreme lengths to try and make sure that the identities were kept private for a reason.”

She added: “I think they should try and watch the show again, and really see what the point of it was – it definitely wasn’t that. I deliberately didn’t want to do an impersonation of somebody; I wanted to do an interpretation of this character.”

Baby Reindeer is available to stream on Netflix now.