Korean producer Astory’s political drama, “Queenmaker”, shot to Netflix’s top non-English TV series in the world within three days of its 14 April premiere, pushing former Korean chart-topper, “The Glory”, into third place.

But while “Queenmaker” may have won the week, it was with the lowest number of viewing hours for a #1 show on the global non-English list this year so far.

The 11-episode “Queenmaker”, written by Moon Ji Young (“Style”), was viewed for 15.9 million hours for the week of 10-16 April, and was a top 10 show in 12 countries – but only #1 in Korea.

At 125 million viewing hours for the week of 6-12 March, “The Glory” retains this year’s record for the highest viewing hours in a single week.

Directed by Jin Suk Oh, “Queenmaker” stars Ell (“Pachinko”) and Jolene Kim (“Grey’s Anatomy”) in the story of an accomplished fixer for a powerful business conglomerate who jumps into politics to make a headstrong civil rights lawyer the next mayor of Seoul.

Taiwanese drama “Copycat Killer” was #1 in Taiwan and Hong Kong and fifth on the global non-English top 10 with 8.2 million hours viewed for the week.

With “Divorce Attorney Shin” at #4, Korean drama took three of the top five spots on the latest week’s list and five of the top 10.

The other two K-dramas on the list were “Crash Course in Romance” (6.6 million hours) and “Alchemy of Souls” part 1 (5.9 million hours).

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▶ 12 April 2023: Taiwan’s “Copycat Killer” hits 17.8 viewing hours in debut on Netflix’s global non-English TV charts; Sitisiri Mongkolsiri’s “Hunger” wins for Thai film