Perhaps you’ve heard of this Squid Game program. The world (and that includes subtitle-phobic America) has been losing their minds for the grim and gory South Korean show about a dystopia in which the cash-strapped enter deadly games to win money. It’s so incredibly, absurdly popular that Netflix was sued in the show’s native country over the massive spike it caused in online traffic. So this news isn’t exactly shocking: According to Deadline, the (alleged) numbers are in and Netflix is claiming it’s even bigger than Bridgerton.
The British bodice-ripper was (again, as per Netflix only, with no independent verification) the streamer’s biggest hit. That wasn’t so long ago. But it’s already been (reportedly) usurped by Squid Game, which Netflix claims is the biggest launch in their streaming history. They’re alleging that the new show has been watched by 111 million households in its first 28 days on the service, handily defeating Bridgerton, which “only” had 82 million over the same period.
Mind you, these numbers are a bit (potentially) skewed. Netflix includes anyone who watched as little as two minutes in their tally, so “viewers” could comprise people who bailed after a few minutes, or never even made it past the pilot. Still, the show (Netflix says) hit number one in as many as 90 different countries, including the one that just barely made the South Korean Best Picture-winner Parasite a moneymaker at the box office, despite it being in a non-English language. Again, this is all per Netflix, who only report on numbers when they’re allegedly through the roof.
(Via Deadline)
