Co-CEO Ted Sarandos Believes Korean Hit Could Be Netflix’s Biggest Ever Series 

Following the global success of Parasite (2019), the world has once again been conquered by a Korean screen story. Hwang Donghyuk’s drama series Squid Game debuted on Netflix on September 17 and quickly shot up the charts, on its way to becoming the first-ever Korean series to top the streamer’s global rankings.

In a recent Netflix event, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos commented on the stunning success of the series, relating that the show would certainly set a new record for a non-English series on the platform, which is currently held by the French series Lupin, which was viewed by 76 million subscribers in 28 days. 

Sarandos went on to say that there was a very good chance that Squid Game would become the top Netflix series overall, a distinction currently held by Bridgerton, the period drama that was viewed by 82 million subscribers during its first four weeks on the service.

According to FlixPatrol, a site that collates data from Top 10 rankings in several Netflix markets, the series eventually topped the rankings in all 83 countries tracked by the website, at one point taking the top ranking in 82 of them at the same time.

Squid Game stars Lee Jungjae, Park Haesoo, Jung Hoyeon and more as debt-saddled participants in a series of deadly playground games, with the winner poised to earn KRW 45.6 billion (USD 38.56 million). Director Hwang is known for the previous film hits such as Silenced (2011), Miss Granny (2014) and The Fortress (2017).