Written by Joe Jackson on Oct 19, 2021. Posted in General Interest

South Korean record-breaker Squid Game expects to generate USD891 million for Netflix

Netflix’s new show Squid Game has reached 132 million households worldwide since its debut on 17 September 2021. After paying USD21.4 million for the nine-episode Korean drama, Netflix expects to generate approximately USD891 million from its most successful series launch yet.

The popular Regency-era series Bridgerton was previously Netflix’s most successful debut show, reaching 82 million households. According to a new report by Bloomberg, 66% of the 132 million households who streamed Squid Game finished the entire series within the first 23 days of its launch. Approximately 89% of these viewers watched a minimum of 75 minutes, the equivalent of more than one episode. Overall, 1.4 billion hours of the show have been streamed across the globe, and Squid Game has topped the Netflix charts in over eighty countries.

Set in contemporary South Korea, Squid Game features 456 debt-ridden contestants participating in a series of deadly children’s games. If competitors manage to reach the final, they have the opportunity to win a life-changing prize of KRW45.6 billion, or USD38.5 million. Creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk suggests that he “wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life.”

The streaming giant’s third most-watched series debut is the French-language mystery thriller Lupin. Squid Game and Lupin’s popularity is indicative of Netflix’s recent investment strategy, whereby global audiences are nurtured and developed through dubbed and subtitled versions of non-English language content.

In February Netflix announced plans to spend USD500 million on new television and film projects in South Korea. Squid Game’s predicted value of USD891 is forty times the size of Netflix’s initial investment towards this particular project. Since the record-breaking new show began streaming the company’s stock has risen 7.1%.

Images courtesy of Netflix and Organic PR