Netflix Squid Game is breaking new viewing records on OTT and has become Netflix’s most watched show in 2021. The Korean drama Squid Game, has unleashed a million memes and sold a billion dalgona candies since it released on September 17.
Netflix’s latest global phenomenon the 9 part web-series Squid Game rising popularity has several reasons. From bringing to fore a layered plot around human greed, brilliant performances and a unique storytelling, this intense survival series has made quite a buzz. And with its ever growing audience, there’s immense curiosity about its cast and popularity too.
Squid Game‘s binge-worthy. Its edge-of-the-seat final episode titled ‘One Lucky Day’ has raised many burning questions. The decisive episode of Squid Game, has taken the world by storm.
The Korean drama was watched by 111 million users in its first 28 days, knocking Bridgerton (82 million) off the top spot.
Netflix counts a view as anyone who’s watched two minutes of an episode.
Netflix Squid Game success beyond our wildest dreams – Netflix says
Netflix’s vice president for content in Korea, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand says the show’s success is “beyond our wildest dreams”.
The nine-part series, which debuted in September, tells the story of a group of misfits taking part in a series of children’s playground games.
There’s a prize of 45.6bn Korean won (£28m) up for grabs, which doesn’t sound too bad until you realise if you lose, you get killed.
Screenwriter Eric R Williams described the sports film Squid Game to be one of the 11 “super genres” of cinema in his 2018 book The Screenwriters Taxonomy. The others are romance, action, war, thriller, science fiction, slice of life, crime, fantasy, Western, and horror. Professional sports and cinema both emerged in the last decades of the 19th century and became sophisticated and globalised in the early years of the 20th century.
Film studies scholar Seán Crosson, in his book Sports and Film (2013), writes that with the development of professional sports in the 20th and 21st centuries, it emerged as one of the most significant cultural practices, “an allegory for life itself”.
Squid Game’s basic story revolves around 456 heavily debt-ridden people from different age groups and strata of society, who participate in six rounds of various children’s games to win a humongous sum of money. They come together in an undisclosed camp, unaware that losing even a single game would cost them their life. The show highlights the economic struggles and class divide in South Korea, with eight characters playing major roles.
Netflix Squid Game Success help Jung Ho Yeon gain 14 million followers on Instagram
The show’s actors have shot to international fame – Jung Ho-yeon, who plays Sae-byeok, has gained 14 million Instagram followers since it launched on 17 September
Watch Squid Game on Netflix now
