Netflix's 'Tiger King' is its most popular TV series in the US and a big hit with critics

Netflix

"Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness"

• Netflix's latest true-crime hit, "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness," is the streamer's most popular title in the US.
• It's also Rotten Tomatoes' most popular TV show right now, with a 97% critic score and a 94% audience score.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

People can't get enough of Netflix's latest true-crime sensation, "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness."

The docuseries, which Netflix describes as a "true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding," premiered March 20 and has quickly become a hit with critics and audiences alike. It has a 97% critic score and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the review-aggregation site's top TV series right now.

"'Tiger King' exposes the furry underbelly of a big-cat community I'd never known about, in which the lines between loving wild animals and exploiting them are never quite clear," Rachel Syme wrote for The New Yorker. "In the end, I felt queasy at what I had seen, but the time sure had flown."

RogerEbert.com's Nick Allen called "Netflix comfort food of the highest order" and wrote that "the term 'true-crime' doesn't do justice to its greatness."

"Tiger King" follows a string of true-crime hits for Netflix that kicked off with 2015's "Making a Murderer."

The series was also Netflix's most popular overall title and its most popular TV show in the US on Sunday and Monday. Since Netflix introduced its daily top 10 lists last month, another true-crime series, "The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez," has also frequently been on the list.

The lists have served as an another way for the streaming giant to promote its originals. On Monday, seven of the 10 most popular overall titles were Netflix original movies or TV shows.

Netflix counts a view if an account watches at least two minutes of a TV show or movie, which is how it calculates its top 10 lists. The lists are updated every morning to reflect the last 24 hours, which means "Tiger King" really surged over the weekend.

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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