Only Murders in the Building Cracks Streaming Ratings Top 10 But Can't Topple Netflix Stranglehold

Only Murders in the Building is just getting more popular as time goes on. The acclaimed Hulu comedy whodunit starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez has established itself not only as a consistent awards player, but also a huge streaming hit for Hulu. This summer, in the middle of its second season, Only Murders in the Building broke into the Top 10 streaming ratings, proving its power in the streaming space.

On Thursday, Nielsen released the streaming ratings for the biggest titles from the week of July 25th through July 31st. During that time, the 16 available episodes of Only Murders in the Building were viewed for a total of 391 minutes. That performance was good enough to land the series the 10th overall position in the streaming originals ranks that week, though it couldn't get past the big Netflix hits.

Virgin River was the biggest original streaming series that week, with more than 2.4 billion minutes of viewership after the arrival of its fourth season. Stranger Things and Keep Breathing also had spots near the top of the list.

Only Murders in the Building recently concluded its second season, setting up the murder for Season 3 with a surprising A-list cameo. After the episode arrived, executive producer and co-creator John Hoffman teased what's ahead in the third installment.

"I will only tease further to say what's coming is so crazy and delightful. I'm thrilled about where we are in Season 3," Hoffman said. "We're four weeks in now in the writers' room, and I think we're swinging better than ever. It's a great, well-oiled machine and a great room that feels constantly inspired by this cast and New York City and the bit of the theatrics ahead. I am a kid raised in the school of the theater, so leaning into the theatrical, leaning into Oliver's sensibilities, dancing in that territory feels really exciting, and we are not going to be shy about it."

"It's going to feel differently because there's an innate sense around our title, and our characters, and that trio is magic," Hoffman continued. "How to freshen that up and progress them individually but also to pull them back together, and the ways in which they've been out of touch, and the ways in which they have found more conflict, potentially, in the last year that we traverse, there's a lot of great stuff. We reset them a little bit, reset their world, and yet the Arconia is still very present in Season 3. What could have happened in that year? Who could have come into their lives? What do their lives look like now? We have a fresh start because we don't know everyone who could be involved potentially, and we can get to play with that."