‘Ogame 2’ sets a new record… First week of Netflix release ‘most watched ever’ |

Season 2 of ‘Squid Game’, which was released on December 26 last year, ranked first among all Netflix works as the most-watched content in the first week of its release.

According to Netflix’s official site ‘Netflix Top 10’ on the 1st, Squid Game Season 2 recorded a total of 68 million views in the fourth week of December (23rd to 29th), the first week of its release. It far surpassed the previous record of 50.1 million views for season 1 of the American drama ‘Wednesday’ in November 2022. The number of views is an indicator that can confirm the popularity of a series by removing the variable of running time.

Squid Game Season 2 also set a new record for ‘first week viewing time’. Season 2, which consists of 7 episodes, had a total running time of 7 hours and 10 minutes and recorded 487.6 million viewing hours worldwide. It surpassed the record (448.73 million hours) set by Season 1 of Squid Game, which was released in the fourth week of September 2021 (20th to 26th).

In the online video service (OTT) industry, content is released at different times, so viewer response is often measured based on viewing time in the first week of release. Thanks to the box office success of Season 2, Season 1 also ‘rebounded’ by ranking 3rd in viewing time (67.1 million hours) in the fourth week of December.

The cumulative viewing time is already at an all-time high. Season 2 ranked 7th in the most popular non-English TV show of all time on Netflix just one week after its release. Currently, the number one cumulative viewing time is Squid Game Season 1 (2.252 billion hours).

According to the media research institute ‘K Enter Tech Hub’, Squid Game Season 1 is analyzed to have invested about 25 billion won in production costs and made a profit of about 1 trillion won. The rate of return is approximately 40 times the production cost. It is reported that the production cost for Season 2 was approximately 100 billion won, four times that of Season 1. Han Jeong-hoon, CEO of K Entertech Hub, said, “Season 2 is also expected to generate at least 10 times more profit than the production cost.”