Squid Game Becomes Netflix's Biggest Debut Hit, Reaching 111 Million Viewers Worldwide
- Blockbuster South Korean series Squid Game has made history by becoming the biggest debut show on Netflix
- Netflix announced that the hit series garnered 111 million views four weeks after launch
- Ironically, the Squid Game creator was turned down by studios for a decade
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South Korean hit series Squid Game is officially the biggest debut show in Netflix’s history.
Source: UGC
Via a social media post on Wednesday, October 13, the streaming platform announced that Squid Game has so far garnered 111 million views.
The statement by Netflix read:
“We won’t tell you who won Squid Game, but we can officially tell you Korea won Netflix. With 111M viewers, it's our biggest ever series at launch and the first to surpass 100M when it premiered.”
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The series launched four weeks ago, topped the charts in more than 80 countries, bumping aside Bridgerton.
According to The Guardian, when Bridgerton was released, it had 82 million views. Netflix calculates the views by including all the accounts that have watched an episode for at least two minutes.
Fans' reactions
Fans of the blockbuster series reacted to the announcement by Netflix by writing:
@bashful_michael:
"The cast deserves all this success, love them so much."
@wandalexia:
“And it’s just one season. What happens when Netflix will officially announced season two?”
@lauraholmes1980:
“I need to watch but I’m scared.”
@REDNAEL1102
“If you’re not watching this I don’t know what you’re doing with your life.”
@sati_whalien52
“They deserve it. Those who haven’t watched it yet are missing out.”
The series revolves around broke adults playing a traditional Korean children's game on a far-flung island.
The winner takes home around KSh 4 billion, while the rest of the contenders are eliminated, literally.
Squid Game rejection
Briefly News previously reported that before Netflix came along, no one wanted Squid Game. According to Hwang, studios turned down the script for the series for almost ten years.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hwang first wrote the script a decade ago while staying with his grandmother and mum.
However, multiple bids to pitch the show flopped, with studios turning down the fictionalised show terming it too unrealistic.
At the time, Hwang was broke, and at one point, he even had to sell his laptop to survive.
Source: Briefly News
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
Lebogang Mashego (Current Affairs HOD) Lebogang Mashego runs the Current Affairs desk. She joined the Briefly News team in 2021. She has 6 years of experience in the journalism field. Her journalism career started while studying at Rhodes University, where she worked for the Oppidan Press for 3 years. She worked as a lifestyle writer and editor at W24 and Opera News. She graduated with a BA degree majoring in Journalism and Media Studies in 2017. She's a recipient of the INMA Elevate Scholarship. Email: lebogang.mashego@briefly.co.za
