Netflix is poised to make a hefty profit from its surprise South Korean hit series Squid Game.
According to Bloomberg, the streaming giant will earn almost $891.1 million in "impact value"—a metric used by the company to measure the performance of individual shows—from the survival drama's first season. It is unclear how Netflix calculates that data or how much it truly impacts its bottom line, but the survival drama series only cost the streamer $21.4 million to produce.
In comparison, the Squid Game contestants could only earn a maximum of $38 million USD. That is about 23 times less than what Netflix is set to gain from the series.
According to Netflix, 111 million households have watched at least two minutes of one episode of Squid Game, surpassing Bridgerton's 82 million to become the streamer's most successful series based on that metric. Of those households, 89% are estimated to have finished at least one episode and 66% have finished the entire series. In total, the series has gathered over 1.4 billion minutes of screen time.
Regarding Squid Game's success, the show's creator Hwang Dong-hyuk credits the premies of the series and its reliance on children's games as the reason why it became such a worldwide hit.
"When I began making Squid Game, I actually did target a global audience," Hwang said. "The children’s games that are featured in the show are those that will bring out nostalgia from adults who actually played them as a kid; but they’re also games that are really easy to grasp. So anyone watching, from anywhere in the world, can understand the rules of the games very easily. And since the games are so simple, the viewers don’t need to focus on trying to understand the rules. They can instead focus on the inner feelings and the dynamics between the characters a lot more, and then they can get immersed into the whole experience, cheering for and empathizing with the characters."
Hwang also said that the themes of class and inequality made it relatable, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There is more inequality, more severe competition and more people are being pushed to the edge of their livelihoods," he noted. "Currently, I would say that more than 90 percent of people across the world will be able to somehow connect and empathize with the plight of the characters that are portrayed in the series. More than anything else, that’s probably why the series was such a big success worldwide."
Source: Bloomberg