Squid Game has officially reached “inspector royale” status, and now is on track to overtake Bridgerton as Netflix’s most-sampled series ever.
The Korean-language thriller, which released nine episodes on Sept. 17, is described as “an imaginative, unorthodox story in which 456 contestants risk their lives in a mysterious survival game — involving multiple rounds of childhood games — for a chance to win 45.6 billion won” (or about $40 million U.S.; the first episode alone begs you to keep a won/dollar conversion calculator nearby).
Hwang Dong-hyuk (The Fortress) wrote and directed all nine episodes, while the cast features Lee Jung-jae (Chief of Staff), Park Hae-soo (Yungnyong-i Nareusya), Yeong-su Oh (The Great Queen Seondeok), Wi Ha-Joon (The Greatest Divorce), fashion model Jung Ho-yeon, Heo Sung-tae (Your Honor), Anupam Tripathi and Joo-ryeong Kim.
Among its accomplishments thus far, Squid Game is the first Korean original series to top Netflix’s consumer-facing Top 10 popularity chart, and it will “definitely” be the company’s biggest non-English series of all time (besting the Spanish series Money Heist), Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said earlier this week. And per FlixPatrol, Squid Game ranks No. 1 in nearly 80 countries (as of Sept. 28). Given the thriller’s rising heat, Sarandos said there’s “a very good chance it’s going to be our biggest show ever.”
Netflix has not yet made for Squid Game any of its “X million homes watched!” claims, but the tale of the tape should come in mid-October, when it will have been out for 28 days.
As of right now, Bridgerton reigns supreme among all Netflix series offerings, having been sampled (at least two minutes were watched) by 82 million accounts in its first 28 days of release. Lupin is second (sampled by 76 million accounts), followed by The Witcher Season 1 (76 million), Sex/Life Season 1 (67 million) and Stranger Things Season 3 (67 million).
When it comes to the most engaging Netflix shows (a measurement of total hours viewed over the first 28 days), Bridgerton again is No. 1 (with 625 million hours), followed by Money Heist Part 4, Stranger Things Season 3, The Witcher Season 1 and 13 Reasons Why Season 2.
Has Squid Game creeped onto your Netflix queue yet? Do you think it deserves to be the streaming giant’s biggest series ever?
