FEATURES
Playing catch-up: The 7 Netflix series with a combined 4.3 billion viewing hours in 2021/2
29 November 2022
Turns out an awkward young lawyer with Asperger’s syndrome has way more staying power among audiences around the world than zombies running amok in a high school. But, depending on how you look at it, it may be the zombies that won in wilder swings in the number of hours viewed over a shorter period.
In 20 weeks on Netflix’s top 10 global non-English-language TV charts, "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" has been viewed by a total of 657 million hours. "All of Us Are Dead", with just under 660 million hours in half the time, is still ahead. But absolutely nothing indicates that anything Netflix has put up from the finest of Korean creators comes anywhere near "Squid Game’s" win of almost 2.3 billion hours viewed in its 20 weeks on the top 10.
Meanwhile, global audiences’ appetite for non-English-language programming varies wildly. Even taking "Squid Game" and "All of Us Are Dead" out of the mix with their gigantic viewing hours in their first few weeks, the graph for the number of hours the #1 show on the non-English list has attracted a week since January this year is a roller-coaster: Spanish drama "Wrong Side of the Tracks" made #1 for the week of 6-12 June with 19.4 million hours. Also on the lower end, "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" topped the 4-10 July list with just under 24 million hours viewed. Somewhere between those lows and the middle, Colombian telenovela "Café con aroma de mujer" hit 99 million hours (10-16 January); 59.4 million hours (3-9 October) did it for Austrian historical drama, "The Empress"; and 62.7 million hours put Korean drama "Narco Saints" in pole position for 12-18 September.
Possible reasons vary from Covid to competition to "Bridgerton", "Stranger Things" and "Jeffrey Dahmer", all of which have topped the English-language list and drew audiences from everywhere. Closing out 2022, it’s pretty safe to say there is zero able to match "Squid Game" for the year and only the hope that other Asian originals will, eventually, make it to the list.
Turns out an awkward young lawyer with Asperger’s syndrome has way more staying power among audiences around the world than zombies running amok in a high school. But, depending on how you look at it, it may be the zombies that won in wilder swings in the number of hours viewed over a shorter period.
In 20 weeks on Netflix’s top 10 global non-English-language TV charts, "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" has been viewed by a total of 657 million hours. "All of Us Are Dead", with just under 660 million hours in half the time, is still ahead. But absolutely nothing indicates that anything Netflix has put up from the finest of Korean creators comes anywhere near "Squid Game’s" win of almost 2.3 billion hours viewed in its 20 weeks on the top 10.
Meanwhile, global audiences’ appetite for non-English-language programming varies wildly. Even taking "Squid Game" and "All of Us Are Dead" out of the mix with their gigantic viewing hours in their first few weeks, the graph for the number of hours the #1 show on the non-English list has attracted a week since January this year is a roller-coaster: Spanish drama "Wrong Side of the Tracks" made #1 for the week of 6-12 June with 19.4 million hours. Also on the lower end, "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" topped the 4-10 July list with just under 24 million hours viewed. Somewhere between those lows and the middle, Colombian telenovela "Café con aroma de mujer" hit 99 million hours (10-16 January); 59.4 million hours (3-9 October) did it for Austrian historical drama, "The Empress"; and 62.7 million hours put Korean drama "Narco Saints" in pole position for 12-18 September.
Possible reasons vary from Covid to competition to "Bridgerton", "Stranger Things" and "Jeffrey Dahmer", all of which have topped the English-language list and drew audiences from everywhere. Closing out 2022, it’s pretty safe to say there is zero able to match "Squid Game" for the year and only the hope that other Asian originals will, eventually, make it to the list.
Previous
Next
