'East of Eden' Catches Viewers by Surprise

'East of Eden,' starring Florence Pugh, reached the top spot on Netflix's global English-language TV chart in its first week, drawing renewed attention to John Steinbeck's classic novel.

The series "Sharq Behesht" starring Florence Pugh reached the first place in the world table of English-language series on Netflix in the first week of its release and once again drew attention to John Steinbeck's classic novel.

According to Ambassador Arjan, this seven-episode mini-series, which was created by Zoe K. Azn (grandson of Elia Kazan) based on Steinbeck's famous 1952 novel, was viewed 6.5 million times in the first week of its release on Netflix, and the audience spent a total of 45.5 million hours watching it.

"East of Paradise" tells the story of several generations of the Trask family in the Salinas Valley of California, and Florence Pugh plays the role of Kathy Ames, a complex and mysterious character whose life is intertwined with the fate of the Trask family. Christopher Abbott and Mike Feist are also present in the series as brothers Adam and Charles Trask. Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton, Hun Lee and Ciaran Hinds are other actors of this series.

According to the statistics published by Netflix, "Sharq Behesht" ranked first in the world table of English-language series with 6.5 million views in the period from September 28 to October 4, 2026. The series "Lizzie Borden's Story" with 5.7 million views and the first season of "A Different World" with 5.1 million views took the second and third places, respectively.

The report of the "What's on Netflix" website shows that this series entered the list of 10 most watched series in 80 countries and reached the first place in 22 countries. Its performance was also impressive in a number of European countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. This series also attracted a significant audience in countries in the Americas and the Middle East.

The return of Steinbeck's novel to bookstore windows

The success of the television adaptation has once again drawn the attention of the audience to the original novel by John Steinbeck. After confirming the creation of this collection, Penguin Classics announced a nearly 200% increase in book sales in various formats. After the publication of the series, the novel reached the first place on the Amazon bestseller list.