Korean pop culture, in numbers

Staying power and force are two different things

The 50 biggest Korean titles on Netflix’s global weekly chart, out of 236that have appeared since 2021-07-04. Ranked once by how long they lasted and once by how hard they landed — the two lists are almost different lists.

The same 50 titles, ordered two ways

Lasted longest

  1. Squid Game42 weeks · 120m/week
  2. Alchemy of Souls27 weeks · 16m/week
  3. Extraordinary Attorney Woo21 weeks · 32m/week
  4. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha16 weeks · 19m/week
  5. Queen of Tears15 weeks · 44m/week
  6. The Glory13 weeks · 43m/week
  7. Business Proposal13 weeks · 21m/week
  8. All of Us Are Dead11 weeks · 60m/week
  9. King the Land11 weeks · 41m/week
  10. Love Next Door11 weeks · 31m/week

Landed hardest

  1. Squid Game120m/week · 42 weeks
  2. All of Us Are Dead60m/week · 11 weeks
  3. Can This Love Be Translated?54m/week · 5 weeks
  4. Agent Kim Reactivated54m/week · 5 weeks
  5. When Life Gives You Tangerines54m/week · 9 weeks
  6. Bon Appétit, Your Majesty51m/week · 10 weeks
  7. Genie, Make a Wish48m/week · 5 weeks
  8. Queen of Tears44m/week · 15 weeks
  9. The Glory43m/week · 13 weeks
  10. King the Land41m/week · 11 weeks

Of the eight on each side, 5 appear on both — Squid Game and Queen of Tears and The Glory and All of Us Are Dead and King the Land. A title that runs for months and a title that consumes a fortnight are both “hits”, and the single number usually quoted for either one cannot tell them apart.

Reaching number one doubles the hours. It adds no weeks.

GroupTitlesAvg hoursAvg weeksAvg per week
Peaked at #126485m9.838m
Peaked below #124196m924m

2.5× the hours, and a difference of 0.8 of a week in run length. The top spot measures how hard a title landed in the weeks it was going to have anyway — it is not a foothold that keeps it on the chart longer. The full story →

What is not on this list. Netflix files its global charts by a title’s primary language, and a Korean work belongs on the Non-English side. 52titles matched a Korean work by name but sit on the English charts, so they are not that work and are out. 8 more came out after we read them one at a time — The East Palace, Teach You a Lesson, The Empress among them. We hand-checked the largest 30 series and 20 films by hours and stopped there; below that line the language rule is doing the work on its own.

All 50

TitleTypeWeeksPeakHoursPer week
Squid Gameseries42#15,048m120m
Extraordinary Attorney Wooseries21#1662m32m
All of Us Are Deadseries11#1660m60m
Queen of Tearsseries15#1654m44m
The Gloryseries13#1561m43m
Bon Appétit, Your Majestyseries10#1512m51m
When Life Gives You Tangerinesseries9#1482m54m
King the Landseries11#1447m41m
Alchemy of Soulsseries27#3419m16m
Bloodhoundsseries10#1353m35m
Love Next Doorseries11#2340m31m
My Demonseries11#2331m30m
Dynamite Kissseries9#1315m35m
Hometown Cha-Cha-Chaseries16#2301m19m
When the Phone Ringsseries8#2282m35m
Business Proposalseries13#1279m21m
Can This Love Be Translated?series5#1271m54m
Agent Kim Reactivatedseries5#1270m54m
My Royal Nemesisseries8#1248m31m
Genie, Make a Wishseries5#1242m48m
True Beautyseries7#5242m35m
Gyeongseong Creatureseries8#2204m26m
Beyond the Barseries7#2202m29m
My Nameseries5#2194m39m
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Callseries5#1185m37m
Crash Course in Romanceseries11#2183m17m
Strong Girl Nam-soonseries9#3174m19m
The WONDERfoolsseries5#2171m34m
Little Womenseries11#3164m15m
Hellboundseries6#1163m27m
Miss Night and Dayseries10#2160m16m
Doctor Slumpseries9#1154m17m
Welcome to Samdal-riseries8#5150m19m
The Great Floodfilm7#1149m21m
Juvenile Justiceseries8#1147m18m
Destined with Youseries8#3146m18m
Sold Out on Youseries7#1142m20m
Our Unwritten Seoulseries6#3141m23m
Resident Playbookseries7#3140m20m
The King's Affectionseries10#2139m14m
Breathlessseries7#1134m19m
Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Areaseries5#1134m27m
As You Stood Byseries5#1133m27m
Narco-Saintsseries5#1130m26m
Our Beloved Summerseries8#4129m16m
Tastefully Yoursseries6#2128m21m
The Price of Confessionseries4#1128m32m
The Guestseries4#6125m31m
Sweet Homeseries5#2123m25m
The Good Bad Motherseries7#3123m18m

What we wrote from this data

Where these numbers come from

← Back to the front page