South Korean show Squid Game, topping Netflix charts in 90 countries, vindicates Netflix's strategy of creating franchises using content from around the world
including the debate over the show's title, which wasn't decided in Hollywood: https://www.vulture.com/... https://twitter.com/... @zemthings : I love how shocked studios are every time something that doesn't have a preexisting fan base does well. https://twitter.com/... Dr. Steven W. Thrasher / @thrasherxy : I love that Squid Game is showing there is US hunger for new stories not based on existing IP. But I'm depressed that Parasite is being made into a US remake. When audiences flock to new stories from minoritized groups, it should lead to *more* stories—not remakes of one story! https://twitter.com/... @vulture : “We always knew [Squid Game] was going to be a signature title for Korea, but there's no way to have anticipated it would be this big” https://www.vulture.com/... @nymag : #SquidGame is a social-media phenomenon and tops Netflix's popularity charts in 90 countries. @TVMoJoe reports on how the streamer's international strategy produced what might be its biggest new show ever https://www.vulture.com/... @jetgirl78 : “The near-instant enthusiasm for Squid Game is all the more impressive because the series isn't based on any preexisting intellectual property.” I'd argue this may be seen a reason for its success. It is something new & we don't know where it's going. https://www.vulture.com/... @tvmojoe : The hottest show on TV right now is a dystopian drama from Korea called #SquidGame. Its success is a massive validation of Netflix's local language strategy, and I talked to global TV chief Bela Bajaria about how it happened. Read it now, only on @vulture: https://www.vulture.com/... Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy : “It also helps that, in addition to shelling out billions to produce its programming, Netflix invests millions more to make sure shows like Squid Game are easily watchable even for folks who don't speak the language used in them...” https://www.vulture.com/... Kovach-O-Lantern / @stevekovach : Squid Game is so popular the internet can't keep up https://www.cnbc.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Squid Game topping Netflix charts in 90 countries is the payoff of a strategy Netflix had been quietly building for years: per Bloomberg's later account, it won in South Korea by developing ideas local broadcasters considered too risky and licensing that content overseas. The show is also an original — no preexisting IP or fan base — which is precisely why the reaction among commentators like Steven W. Thrasher frames it as proof of audience hunger for new stories rather than franchise recycling.
The commercial stakes are unusually well-documented: Netflix's internal estimates put the show at roughly $900M in value with 87M viewers finishing it in 23 days, and by spring 2022 Asia-Pacific was the company's lone growth region, adding 1.09M subscribers on the back of this hit.
First-order effects
- Netflix gets internal confirmation that its biggest launch ever came from a market where it greenlit what Korean broadcasters wouldn't — validating Bela Bajaria's global-origination playbook over Hollywood development.
- South Korean creators and production houses gain leverage as the proven source of Netflix-scale franchises, shifting commissioning power toward Seoul.
Second-order effects
- Hollywood's response pattern is already visible in the related debate: rather than commissioning more new stories from minoritized creators, studios convert breakthroughs into US remakes — the path Parasite is taking — which risks cannibalizing the novelty that made these titles valuable.
- Rivals now face pressure to match Netflix's localization spend; Netflix itself doubled down by improving dubbing and translations of non-English content, especially Korean reality shows, to widen the funnel this hit opened.
Third-order effects
- If one un-Hollywooded title can outperform established IP in 90 countries, the structural shift is toward streamers treating every national market as an R&D lab for global franchises — with subtitles-and-dubbing infrastructure, not star packaging, as the competitive moat.
- The counter-trend Thrasher identifies — hits being remade into familiar formats instead of seeding new ones — would blunt that shift, making the industry's choice between origination and adaptation the open question this story hangs on.
The trend: Streaming's center of gravity is moving from Hollywood-owned IP to locally originated series industrialized for global distribution, with localization investment deciding which platform can repeat the Squid Game outcome.