Squid Game’s Final Season Marks a Turning Point in Netflix’s Korean Fever
When the third and final season of Squid Game arrives on Netflix on June 27, it will mark the end of a show that captured the world’s fascination and went on to become the streamer’s biggest hit of all time (Season 1 racked up more than 2.2 billion hours viewed in its first three months, more than any other Netflix show ever, and Season 2 added another 1.3 billion hours). But just because the final round of the fan-favorite survival drama is fast approaching, that doesn’t mean global demand for Korean content will slow down anytime soon. If anything, the world’s obsession with Korean dramas, reality shows and movies is only intensifying — and Netflix is betting big on South Korea to deliver the next wave of global streaming hits.
In recent days, for example, the streamer released its first original animated feature film produced in South Korea. Lost in Starlight, a sci-fi romance praised by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho as “a visual masterpiece,” is set in a futuristic version of Seoul and follows an astronaut-botanist with a musician boyfriend. The couple, separated by 140 million miles, navigates love and ambition against the backdrop of ethereal visuals that evoke a cosmopolitan version of the Studio Ghibli aesthetic — and viewers have responded to the movie by helping it achieve a near-perfect 95 percent Rotten Tomatoes audience score.
Korean TV series like Squid Game, meanwhile, are especially lucrative for Netflix. According to Parrot Analytics, such titles have generated more than $8 billion in streaming revenue for Netflix globally since 2020. “As Netflix continues to invest in local content in markets around the world, the success of Korean series on the platform is a reminder that local content investments can transcend national borders and become lucrative global hits,” Chris Hamilton, Parrot Analytics’ industry insights manager, told Observer.
Other recent Netflix Korean hits include The Glory, a slow-burn revenge drama starring Song Hye-kyo as a woman who survives bullying at school and who takes revenge on her tormentors as an adult. The series, the first half of which debuted in late 2022, could be a tough watch at times, blending uncomfortable scenes of trauma with social commentary, but viewers couldn’t get enough. When the second half of the series dropped in 2023, it instantly topped the streamer’s global chart; viewership surpassed 400 million hours in only a few weeks.
It was yet another example of how Korean content on Netflix has evolved into the kind of fare that can draw viewers around the globe. According to Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, the majority of Netflix’s user base is now watching Korean content—and most viewers of Korean romantic dramas like See You in My 19th Life and Twenty Five Twenty One actually live outside South Korea.
What’s more: Not only are Korean shows and films massively popular on Netflix around the world, but they’re also an important lever for subscriber growth. “South Korean content serves two key functions for Netflix,” Motohiko Ara, an analyst with Ampere Analysis, told Observer. “It is highly binge-worthy, while also strengthening its competitive edge in the [Asia-Pacific] region.” Ara goes on to note that Korean titles also tend to be longer than non-Korean TV series. More than 70 percent of Korean TV episodes run over 45 minutes, compared to 44 percent of U.S. episodes. That means more viewing hours per user—a crucial metric in the attention economy.
In 2023, Netflix announced a four-year, $2.5 billion investment in Korean content, doubling down on a bet that’s transformed Korean storytelling into a cornerstone of its global strategy. And the results speak for themselves: Per Ampere, Korean programming is now second only to U.S. content in total viewing hours on Netflix. In the second half of 2024, Korean content generated 7.7 billion viewing hours — representing 8 percent of all viewing on the platform. And last year, 85 of the top 500 non-US. titles on Netflix were Korean.
It’s not just prestige dramas driving the viewership. While Squid Game: Season 2 topped Netflix’s global chart in late 2024 with more than 619 million hours viewed, other hits like reality dating show Single’s Inferno and cooking competition Culinary Class Wars have also proven the genre’s range. Older Korean titles like Queen of Tears and Crash Landing on You also continue driving engagement, giving Netflix a strong pipeline of evergreen Korean content.
The bottom line: As Squid Game wraps its final chapter, the search is on for the streamer’s next Korean juggernaut that can build on the improbable success of a dystopian bloodbath that became a worldwide obsession.
