October 13 ------ It’s now official: “Squid Game” is Netflix’s biggest series launch of all time. Netflix announced that “Squid Game,” the Korean show about 456 cash-strapped people playing deadly games for a 45.6 billion won ($38 million) prize, is now No. 1. “Squid Game has officially reached 111 million fans — making it our biggest series launch ever!” announced Netflix in a video posted on social media celebrating the milestone.
Using the voice of the masked guard in the series, Netflix added, “I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to you all. 111 million of you have joined the ranks of the VIPs, making Squid Game our #1 show in the world.” The 111 million viewers are based on the number of Netflix accounts that have watched at least two minutes of the title based on Netflix criteria.
The Netflix-owned Twitter account Netflix Geeked posted that “Squid Game” became Netflix’s biggest series launch ever in just 17 days. “It took more than 10 years for Hwang Dong-hyuk [‘Squid Game’ director] to get Squid Game made. It only took 17 days and 111M global fans to become our biggest ever series at launch (and the first to surpass 100M when it premiered),” Netflix Geeked tweeted on Oct. 13. With this, “Squid Game” surpassed “Bridgerton: Season 1,” which had 85 million viewers in its first 28 days as announced by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos during the Code Conference in California last month.
“Lupin” and “The Witcher” had 76 million viewers, “Sex/Life” and “Stranger Things 3” had 67 million and “Money Heist” had 65 million. Netflix usually uses 28 days as measurement for popularity of shows on the platform. Since its launch on Sept. 17, “Squid Game” has exploded in popularity and became the No. 1 most watched show on Netflix worldwide, according to streaming analytics website FlixPatrol. “Squid Game” stars Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Jung Ho-yeon, Wi Ha-joon, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi and Kim Joo-ryoung.
Source: mb.com.ph