‘Squid Game’ season 2 has set an incredible record of 500 million hours of global cumulative viewing in its first week of release, reaffirming its status as a lucrative IP (intellectual property) for Netflix. There are also projections that season 2 will record at least 1.5 trillion won in revenue, and expectations are also rising for season 3, which will herald the appearance of the terrifying murderous doll ‘Cheol-soo’.

○Highest opening score ever

According to Netflix, ‘Squid Game’, which was released on the 26th of last month, recorded 487.6 million cumulative hours in just four days, ranking first in the combined weekly viewing rankings in both English and non-English languages for the fourth week of December (23rd-29th). This is more than 11 times the number of hours watched by ‘Christmas Game Day: Ravens vs. Texans’, which came in second with 42.8 million. It even broke the record for the highest opening score ever, surpassing ‘Wednesday’ in the US, which recorded 341.23 million cumulative viewers in its first week.

That‘s not all. Based on the number of viewers (68 million), it even showed off its prowess by rising to 7th place in the all-time non-English series box office performance in its first week of release, and it re-entered the non-English weekly chart at 3rd place, climbing back up the global charts to Season 1.

In addition, Season 2 has maintained the No. 1 spot as the most-watched TV show in all 93 countries where Netflix is available since the 27th, the second day of its release. Season 2 is the first original series to reach #1 in every country, and also received a perfect score (930 points) for the first time ever in the content ranking score provided by FlixPatrol, a global OTT content ranking chart.
○ Estimated at 1.5 trillion won… Chul-soo is coming

While Season 2 is breaking all-time box office records despite mixed reviews, the forecast that Season 2 will generate a profit of over 1.5 trillion won is drawing attention.

Media research institute K-Entertech Hub analyzed, “When calculating based on the box office trend of Season 1, which generated over 1 trillion won with a production cost of 25 billion won, the expected profit for Season 2 is estimated at at least 1.5 trillion won,” and “Season 2, which invested 100 billion won (including Season 3), will generate profits at least 10 times higher, even if it does not reach the profitability of Season 1.”

However, Netflix expressed concerns about this profitability evaluation method, saying that it “does not fit” with the service’s unique sales structure that is based on “subscription fees as a prerequisite.”

Some say that the number of new subscribers through Season 2 is There are also predictions that it will generate higher profits than Season 1, especially through partnerships with other brands. In fact, Season 2 is collaborating with various brands such as games, alcohol, food, automobiles, and cosmetics to present various MDs.

In this situation, expectations for Season 3, which will be released within the year, are also rising. In particular, the Season 2 cookie video and Season 3 teaser poster showed the appearance of ‘Cheolsu’, the partner of ‘Younghee’, the signature giant murder doll of ‘Squid Game’, stimulating the curiosity of fans.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

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