The survival game series ‘Squid Game is now the most watched TV show in its first season which Netflix has ever launched in the words of the giant streaming service.
The streaming service said on that the violent Korean show has already been watched by more than 111 million subscribers in the time since its premiere on 17 September across the globe, in the span of just 25 days according to variety.com.
This means that ‘Squid Game’ was watched by more people during the initial month of its release than its previous number one film, ‘Bridgerton’ which Netflix claimed was selected to be watched by an average of 82 million households within the first 28 days following its the release.
The unique metric Netflix uses for this is based on the amount of accounts that selected the same title and watched for at least two minutes. This doesn’t reveal the amount of viewers who actually watched an entire episode and also includes people who viewed it to see what all the controversy was all about before turning off the service.
The company has also launched, for the very for the first time, a chart of the top 10 most watched original films and shows by the number of hours watched. However, the show “Squid Game” has received a huge amount of attention and consistently ranks as the most watched series in the world since its premiere in the eyes of Netflix.
A few weeks ago, Netflix chief content officer and co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the show was very likely of becoming the streaming service’s most popular show to date. “We did not see that coming, in terms of its global popularity,” Sarandos stated at the Vox Media’s Code Conference.
On the program, 456 delinquent contestants are mysteriously gathered on an island in the middle of the South Korean peninsula to compete in games for children, claiming the chance to win a massive cash prize, with literally life-threatening consequences.
Director and creator Hwang Dong Hyuk told Variety that he initially came up with the idea for “Squid Game in 2008 when he was planning the basis for a movie. However, Korean studios turned it down due to the violence in the film, and Hwang went on to make many hit films before having the opportunity to revisit the idea about 10 years after.
