The great numbers of ‘Squid Game’

The new Netflix series ‘Squid Game‘ has been a huge success in much of the world. Its premise is simple. It tells the story of 456 players who participate in a mysterious survival game with a prize of 45.6 billion won  (approximately €33 million), risking their lives to become the ultimate winner.

These players, poor devils, driven by debt, throw themselves into the game of survival trying to start a new life with a big cash prize. But not everyone can be a winner. Those who fail are eliminated not only from the game, but also from their existence.

In this article I will comment on the numbers of the series, without spoilering about its episodes. I understand that if you have come this far it is because you have already seen the series and if you have not seen it maybe I encourage you to see it.

The game is simple: if you win, the money is all yours. If you lose, you die. Will you play?

Squid Game is like Battle Royale meets Black Mirror — and it’s now on Netflix pic.twitter.com/SrjNL4vNrX

— Netflix (@netflix) September 17, 2021

The beginning of the journey of ‘Squid Game’

And it all started on September 17, 2021, the day Netflix officially released ‘Squid Game’. On September 2,  he published the first official trailer of the series on his social networks.

Technical data of the series:

The most watched series of all time

On October 13, 2021, Netflix officially announced that ‘Squid Game’ was the most watched series of all time. In just 17 days,  111 million paid subscription households  watched it, surpassing 82 million households in the 28 days of  Bridgerton Season 1, which was the previous series’ record, by a wide margin.

Squid Game has officially reached 111 million fans — making it our biggest series launch ever! pic.twitter.com/SW3FJ42Qsn

— Netflix (@netflix) October 12, 2021

Also, since Netflix ended the 30-day free trial event in April 2021, records from previous jobs, including Bridgerton, include the number of households that watched the series for free, but Squid Game only counts the number of households with paid subscriptions.

In fact, it is true that TV series with a long duration are at a disadvantage compared to films and documentaries that can be completed in a relatively short period of time. The viewing time,which reveals the true value of a drama series, is expected to be a much more overwhelming record. At 28 days, the all-time watch time record was 625 million hours from Bridgerton Season 1.

If we take as a starting value the 111 million households that watched the series and multiply it by the total time of the series, 476 minutes, it does not give a total of 52,836,000,000 minutes, that is, 880 million hours.

Impact of the series

According to Bloomberg,   Forbes  and  Investing.com, Netflix’s stock price  reached an all-time high thanks to the domino effect of ‘Squid Game’ as seen in Fig. 1. In addition,  the Wall Street Journal  diagnosed ‘Squid game’ as a global phenomenon. In particular, there are countless  memes, parodies, and challenges about the series that have generated explosive popularity and a domino effect in all walks of life, and the costumes of the characters are going to be very consumed on Halloween. In addition, the games that appear in the episodes are easily developed in a gaming culture.

Evaluation of the series by critics and viewers

The series became the first Korean drama to reach the first place in the ranking  of most viewed series on the Netflix platform in the United States.

On Rotten Tomatoes  critics gave it a  92%rating, based on 50 reviews by critics, with a score of  8.2/10. (as of October 16, 2021). For its part, the audience has given it a rating of 85%, based on more than 1654 reviews (again on October 16, 2021).

On the IMDb  platform, the audience has rated it with  8.2 stars out of 10 and it debuted at number 4 within the “Top 10 Series Worldwide” on its first day, breaking records on the platform.