Netflix has released new data for its global smash hit “Squid Game” — showing it as No. 1 with a bullet.
“Squid Game” pulled in a staggering 1.65 billion hours of viewing in 28 days following its Sept. 17 premiere, according to Netflix. That’s equivalent to more than 182,000 years in total.
The overall viewing of the ultra-violent Korean drama in the first month is 2.6 times that of Netflix’s next biggest show, Shonda Rhimes’ “Bridgerton” Season 1, which generated 625 million hours over its first 28 days of release.
Netflix released the new all-time TV show rankings Tuesday, for both English and non-English titles, as part of announcing its expanded weekly Top 10 lists that are based on aggregate viewing hours of members — a flex move to regularly tout its most-popular originals. The company said it will maintain a regularly updated list of all-time most-viewed TV shows and films on its new top10.netflix.com site.
Previously, Netflix said 142 million member households sampled “Squid Game” in its first four weeks of release, but that counted everyone who streamed at least two minutes of the show. The company’s new viewing-measurement standard ranks titles based on total hours viewed of a given title over a specified time period, which is a better reflection of overall engagement. Netflix also said it has enlisted accounting firm EY to audit the metrics.
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Netflix has not yet officially announced a Season 2 order for “Squid Game.” But in a recent interview, show creator Hwang Dong-hyuk confirmed that a second run of the survival drama is in the works.
Here is the updated list of all-time most-watched TV shows on Netflix (first 28 days of release), broken out by English and non-English series:
And here Netflix’s current list of all-time most-watched movies (first 28 days of release):
In “Squid Game,” 456 cash-strapped contestants are invited to compete in a series of children’s games — with deadly consequences — to win a piece of the ₩45.6 billion prize pool (about $38.5 million).
Netflix paid $21.4 million for “Squid Game” and has estimated the series will deliver $891 million in what it calls “impact value,” per confidential internal data that was leaked to Bloomberg. Netflix fired an employee it said had accessed the info and shared it outside the company; the employee denies they shared the data with Bloomberg and filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging Netflix retaliated against them for protesting Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer.”