Content reflecting Korean culture decorated the popular rankings of the global online video service (OTT) Netflix in the first half of this year.
Netflix released its viewing trend report for the first half of this year on the 18th. During this period, subscribers spent about 95 billion hours on Netflix.
Korean content was popular on Netflix in the first half of this year as well. Both seasons 2 and 3 of "Squid Game" made it into the top 10 most popular series of the first half. In particular, season 3 of "Squid Game" topped the Netflix Top 10 in all 93 countries that aggregate the ranking right after its release. This is the first time in which this work recorded first place in all countries during its first week of release.
Season 3 of "Squid Game," released on the 27th of last month, recorded approximately 72 million viewers in just three days by the 30th, which was the survey period of the first half report. The total number of views for all seasons of "Squid Game" in the first half of this year reached 231 million.
The drama "When Life Gives You Tangerines" recorded approximately 35 million views in the first half of this year. The story, which unfolds the lives of the characters "Aesoon" and "Gwan-sik" across the four seasons, resonated with audiences around the globe. The main setting of this work is Jeju Island.
The animated film "K-Pop Demon Hunters," set in Korea and themed around K-pop, is also popular. It recorded 37 million views within less than a month of release. Immediately after its release, the music of the fictional K-pop band featured in the content climbed the charts of major global platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes. The music featured in the film is currently ranked as the highest among movie soundtracks on the "2025 Billboard 200."
Additionally, Korean webtoon adaptations such as ▲The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (34 million views), ▲Weak Hero Class 1 (22 million), and ▲Weak Hero Class 2 (20 million) also gained popularity in the first half of this year.
Among the Korean content included in this report, Netflix owns intellectual property (IP) rights for less than 15%, which is the same level as last year. Netflix noted that this 'demonstrates the diverse ways to expand the global reach of various Korean content, such as through original, privatized, and licensing methods.'
Meanwhile, among the 25 most-watched series in the first half of this year, 10 were non-English works. Additionally, Netflix original content continues to be popular even two to three years after its release. About half of the viewing hours of Netflix original content in the first half of this year were accounted for by works released before 2024. Titles such as "Orange Is the New Black," "Ozark," and "Money Heist" recorded over 100 million viewing hours just in the first half of this year.