Squid Game didn’t just top Netflix’s action charts in early 2025 — it blew the scale wide open. With 1.6 billion hours viewed and over 230 million views logged, the series didn’t merely win; it reset expectations for what a true global TV phenomenon looks like in the streaming era. Netflix suddenly has a new benchmark for dominance, the kind of cultural takeover that turns a show into an event rather than just another binge. And unless another action series can generate that same instant, world-spanning urgency — the kind that commands conversation, rewires the algorithm, and makes audiences feel like they’re already late if they haven’t watched — it’s hard not to see everything else as competing for second place.
‘Squid Game’ Set a New Global Benchmark
Squid Game premiered in late 2021 and became a true global phenomenon, unlike any original series has done before. After 17 days, Squid Game had 111 million views on Netflix, surpassing all other Netflix hits before it (Bridgerton was the previous biggest debut). The show is now an incredible success, with almost 1.6 billion viewing hours and over 230 million views worldwide (479 million total viewers if you count repeat viewings). These numbers are astronomical for any action show; they are numbers of which most action shows can only dream.
This is not just about viewership numbers; it is about how Squid Game has become part of popular culture. Its basic premise — desperate individuals playing fatal games for money — resonates with people around the world, regardless of language or nationality. That clarity helped squash typical barriers that foreign-language dramas face, turning every new episode into an appointment to watch, debate, and meme.
To Beat ‘Squid Game,’ a Show Can’t Just Be Action
If any challenger hopes to unseat Squid Game’s legacy, it will have to be more than a well-shot action series. First, it needs to generate what Squid Game mastered: a “watch it now, or you’re behind” feeling that turns TV watching into a shared event. The early 2025 viewing landscape is more fragmented than ever — gone are the days when a single show could dominate conversations the way Game of Thrones once did. Yet Squid Game did precisely that by tapping into widespread social and economic anxieties. The show’s commentary on inequality, debt, and the commodification of survival resonated with countries facing rising living costs and widening economic gaps. That relevance — not just spectacle — made it feel like something “of the moment.”
More than just action set pieces, Squid Game delivered survival drama with universal stakes. It turned childhood games into dangerous trials, layered with social critique that helped the series live beyond the screen. That’s why audiences across more than 90 countries rushed to watch it during its opening weeks — Squid Game topped Netflix’s global charts everywhere it was measurable.
‘Squid Game’ Season 3 Review: This Brutal Final Installment Takes Everything That Works, Cranks It Up to 100, and Then Goes Even Further
All episodes of ‘Squid Game’ can now be streamed on Netflix in the U.S.
Why Traditional Action Won’t Cut It Anymore
Look at the shows that have dominated streaming recently: many rely on star power, comic book IP, or familiar genre tropes. But Netflix’s biggest action wins aren’t traditional action at all — they’re high-concept survival thrillers built around a core idea that’s instantly shareable. The social media burst around Squid Game was unlike anything Netflix had seen: its “Red-Light, Green-Light” clip became the streamer’s top-performing TikTok video ever with more than 128 million organic views. On platforms like TikTok and YouTube, Squid Game-inspired clips and memes racked up billions of impressions, driving discovery and encouraging bingeing long after the initial release date.
That kind of momentum isn’t born just from clever choreography or flash-bang sequences — it comes from a show that people want to talk about, imitate, dress up as, and riff on. Sweatpants-clad fans lined up around global activations, giant installations, and immersive experiences in cities from New York to Seoul. At the same time, merchandise collaborations with major brands stretched the series into everyday culture.
What Future Contenders Need To Learn About ‘Squid Game’
Future contenders might look at Squid Game’s success and think the recipe is just to make something shocking with violence and games. But the real secret sauce was combining instant accessibility with universal themes. Netflix executives pointed out that voice-of-audience signals — like watching the show’s actors’ social followings explode or seeing Squid Game content trend globally on professional sites like LinkedIn — were rare even for breakout hits.
Take the show’s distinctive visual language: pink jumpsuits, geometric playground arenas, and lantern-colored dystopian sets. These weren’t just stylistic choices. They were bold icons that made the show easy to identify, easy to reference, and hard to ignore. Combined with a premise that anyone — once told about it in a sentence — could understand, the result was a cross-cultural conversation machine.
Beating Squid Game won’t just be about breaking hours watched or views counted. It will be about redefining what “global television success” means. Before Squid Game, Netflix’s strategy for international content was cautious; now, executives cite the show as proof that locally authentic stories can travel farther than formulaic blockbusters.
