If you haven’t heard about the show “Squid Game,” you’re probably living under a rock. If that’s not then, allow me to stun you with the massive success of the Korean Netflix series. In the history of Netflix, the series is the most popular TV show ever.
Netflix announced on Tuesday that the gruesome Korean series has already been watched by 111 million subscribers as of September 17th globally. What’s even more shocking is that this massive number of viewership took place in a period of only 25 days!
This is a straight indicator that the previous No.1 ranked show, “Bridgerton,” has been massively beaten by Squid Game in its first month of release. Bridgerton gathered an audience of 82 million in the first 28 days of its release, which is like peanuts when we look at the 111 million views of Squid Game.
A big factor to account for is that the matrix used to bring out these statistics is based on the criteria that how many accounts picked the title and viewed it for at least 2 minutes. So, we’re not clear whether all those people watched the complete show, but the hype for the show surely depict it is indeed immensely popular. This is the first time that the company revealed the ranking of the Top 10 most-viewed shows and films.
Keeping all these factors in mind, it is no doubt that the show has created a buzz and consistently ranked on No.1 in around 90 countries, as per Netflix. Previously, around two weeks ago, Netflix co-CEO and chief of content, expressed that the show has a very high chance of becoming the greatest ever show on Netflix.
“We did not see that coming, in terms of its global popularity,” Sarandos said at Vox Media’s Code Conference.
The show is about 456 contestants who are deeply in debt, they are brought on an island off the South Korean peninsula to participate in a children’s game for a huge cash prize, however, the consequences of losing are deadly. Literally.
The celebrated Korean filmmaker, Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed to Variety, that he first tried to pitch Squid Game as a movie back in 2008. The Korean studios, however, did not approve of it due to its violent nature. So, he went on to produce other films which were major hits and revisited his Squid Game project 12 years later.
“When I started [writing ‘Squid Game’], I was in financial straits myself and spent much time in cafes reading comics including ‘Battle Royale’ and ‘Liar Game. I came to wonder how I’d feel if I took part in the games myself. But I found the games too complex, and for my own work focused instead on using kids’ games.”
