It’s no secret that Squid Game is now the most popular Netflix show of all time, but new figures reveal just how popular Hwang Dong-hyuk’s survival drama became in its first four weeks of release.
In recent data published as part of the streamer’s revised viewership measurements, Netflix claims that Squid Game was watched for a total of 1.6 billion hours during its opening month. Yes, you read that right – 1.6 billion.
For context, that means audiences spent more than 182,000 years watching the show in its first four weeks alone – Bridgerton, Netflix’s second most popular title, raked in less than half that total.
We’ve had a lot of feedback about our metrics over the years.So we went back to the drawing board and today we’re excited to launch https://t.co/a9X2usRUun — a new website with weekly global and country lists of the most popular titles on Netflix as ranked by view hours pic.twitter.com/JMrvzmRv8sNovember 16, 2021
The updated figures were announced alongside the streamer’s new website, top10Netflix.com, which makes weekly viewership data for its movies and TV shows available to the public.
Unsurprisingly, Netflix’s push to be more transparent with its audience figures came as a result of Squid Game’s astronomical success. Going forward, the company will abandon the two-minute-per-view metric used in recent years to instead record the total hours watched within a given title’s first 28 days of release – hence Squid Game’s 1.6 billion-hour revelation.
“We think engagement as measured by hours viewed is a slightly better indicator of the overall success of our titles and member satisfaction,” Netflix bosses said in a recent letter to shareholders. “It also matches how outside services measure TV viewing and gives proper credit to rewatching.”
Evidently, the move towards total-hours-watched metrics provides great eye candy when shows like Squid Game perform as well as they do, but it’ll be interesting to see whether Netflix maintains its newfound commitment to transparency if its other shows don’t live up to expectations.
Will there be a Squid Game season 2?
As for whether we can expect a second season of Squid Game in the future, recent developments suggest creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is moving ahead with the idea.
In recent interviews, Hwang has appeared increasingly confident about potential narratives for a Squid Game season 2, going as far as to say that he actually has "a very high-level picture" of a potential follow-up story (via The Guardian).
The creator also told The Associated Press in November that "there will indeed be a second season" of Squid Game, so although Netflix hasn't weighed in with official confirmation just yet, we're fairly confident that Squid Game season 2 is on the way.
You’ll find a more detailed breakdown of our thoughts on a potential second season in our comprehensive breakdown of the Squid Game ending, but those concerned that Netflix may not renew the most popular property in its history should rest assured – Squid Game will return. 1.6 billion hours have made sure of that.
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