The South Korean survival horror thriller series Squid Game, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, generated about $900 million by October 2021 according to Bloomberg News. The show’s production cost only about $21.4 million.
In the show, a group of individuals risk their lives to win a prize of ₩45.6 billion in an unidentified survival game dubbed the Squid Game. The series was released worldwide on Netflix on September 17, 2021. A Korean children's game with the same name inspires the series' title.
Hwang developed the concept in response to the class difference in South Korea and his early financial difficulties. Although he had written it in 2009, he was unable to find a production firm to help fund the idea until 2019, when Netflix expressed interest in expanding its international programming services.
Squid Game’s earnings and its widespread influence
Based on extended audience data, Netflix calculated that Squid Game had made around US$900 million by October 2021; the production cost was $21.4 million, according to Bloomberg News. With one executive referring to this as an area of "unlimited potential," operators of other streaming services with original content, including Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV+, have started examining how Netflix finds regional content outside of Hollywood and finds similarly successful works for their platforms in response to Squid Game's unexpected success for Netflix.
Such foreign projects are usually less expensive to make, with tax benefits or incentives provided by the host country for filming and production, in addition to providing fresh ideas and departing from the similar themes of conventional Hollywood productions.
The success of Squid Game gave several creators of non-US TV shows who had previously had trouble pitching their shows to US-based streaming services hope that these services would now take their work seriously.
Squid Game’s popularity
The show was the first Korean drama to rank among the top ten weekly TV show streams on Netflix worldwide. It peaked at the top of the charts in 94 countries, including the US and the UK. After 17 days of availability, Netflix estimated that Squid Game had attracted over 111 million member households globally, and after 28 days, over 142 million member households. This figure surpassed the 82 million that Bridgerton had received in its first 28 days in December 2020, making it the most-watched series on the service when it first launched.
With nearly 1.65 billion hours in its first 28 days, Squid Game continued to be the most-watched show on Netflix after the streaming site updated its stated measures of viewership in November 2021 based on the total hours watched of the series, surpassing Bridgerton's 625 million hours. According to the first 28 days of viewership, Squid Game was still the most-watched Netflix series as of July 2022, surpassing Stranger Things 4.
According to Hwang, the popularity of the show might be attributed to "the irony that hopeless grownups risk their lives to win a kids' game" as well as the games' familiarity and simplicity, which let the show concentrate on personality. The characters in the Squid Game are diverse, representing a range of lower- and middle-class backgrounds, which further attracts viewers to watch as many of them may evoke empathy in them.
Read more about Squid Game:
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Squid game season 1 recap all you need to know before season 2
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FAQs about Squid Game
A. Squid Game estimatedly made over $900 million by October 2021.
A. The production cost of the South Korean survival horror thriller Squid Game was $21.4 million.
A. Squid Game became a big hit given its widespread popularity and viewership outside Asian countries. With nearly 1.65 billion hours in its first 28 days, Squid Game was the most-watched show on Netflix
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