Following the release of ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 late last year, ‘Solo Hell’ Season 4 and ‘Trauma Center’ in January, Netflix Korea has succeeded in achieving three consecutive box office hits with its original content. Attention is focused on whether Netflix, which got off to a strong start in the year of Eulsa, will be able to overcome last year‘s slump and continue its upward trend.

According to the latest global weekly chart (20th-26th) released by Netflix, three recently released Netflix Korean original content, ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 (1st), ‘Trauma Center’ (3rd), and ‘Solo Hell’ Season 4 (5th), were ranked in the top 10 in cumulative viewing of non-English series. Since the release of Season 2, ‘Squid Game’ Season 1 has also succeeded in climbing the rankings, rising to 6th place, drawing attention for the inclusion of a total of 4 Korean original series on the chart.

‘Squid Game’ Season 2, which has maintained the top spot for 5 consecutive weeks since its release on December 26th of last year, has previously achieved the first simultaneous No. 1 spot in all countries (93 countries) where Netflix is serviced, and has also demonstrated its power by ranking 3rd in the all-time Netflix viewing rankings, following ‘Squid Game’ Season 1 and ‘Wednesday’ Season 1 in the US.

The dating reality show ‘Solo Hell 4’ has entered the top 10 chart with the highest opening score of the season ever, recording 23.1 million viewing hours since its release on January 14th, and ‘Trauma Center’ also entered the non-English Top 10 charts as soon as it was released on the 24th. It showed its global popularity by rising to 7th place on the combined English and non-English charts as well as 3rd place. On the global OTT content ranking platform FlixPatrol, it started the race at 6th place as soon as it was released and rose to a high of 2nd place.
Netflix Korea, which had a sluggish year last year due to the successive poor performances of highly anticipated works such as ‘Chicken Gangjeong’, ‘The Fool of the End’, ‘The Whirlwind’, ‘Kyungseong Creature’, and ‘Trunk’, is expected to spur this upward trend with the box office success of its original works since the beginning of the year.

In particular, it is aiming for a reversal of popularity with romance works, which had not performed well compared to genre works, and is releasing its first romance drama of the year, ‘Melo Movie’. This drama depicts a cinematic time in which ambiguous youths who want to love and achieve their dreams discover each other, become inspirations for each other, and overcome their own traumas. Starring Choi Woo-shik, Park Bo-young, Lee Joon-young, and Jeon So-ni.

‘Cheated on You’ starring IU and Park Bo-gum, set in Jeju in the 1950s, ‘Everything Will Come True’ starring Kim Woo-bin and Suzy, and ‘Lost in Translation?’ starring Kim Seon-ho and Go Yoon-jung, written by star writers Kim Eun-sook and the Hong Sisters, respectively, are also scheduled to meet global audiences this year.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.