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A still from the Netflix series “Squid Game” (provided by Netflix)

“Squid Game,” the South Korean Netflix original series that has touched off a global craze, has officially become the biggest hit in Netflix history.

On Wednesday, Netflix announced, “‘Squid Game’ has officially reached 111 million fans — making it our biggest series launch ever!”

Netflix currently has around 290 million paying subscribers in 190 countries. This means that nearly half of all Netflix viewers have tuned in for “Squid Game” to date. Previously, the platform’s biggest hit was “Bridgerton,” a US series viewed by 82 million households.

According to Netflix, “Squid Game” had ranked first in daily top 10 lists for 94 different countries since its debut on Sept. 17. As of Wednesday, it was the first Netflix series from a non-English-speaking country to top the daily top 10 in the US for 21 days straight.

“When Netflix began investing in Korea in 2015, the aim was to present world-class Korean content,” said Kim Min-young, vice president for content for the Asia-Pacific region (not including India) at Netflix.

“It was just a dream at the time, but ‘Squid Game’ has made that into a reality,” she added.

She also said, “Back then the show hadn’t been made yet, and it was just the idea that director Hwang Dong-hyuk had long been brewing, Netflix believed that the appeal of ‘Squid Game’ was something that could move fans not just in Korea, but all over the world.”

During the Code Conference 2021 event in the US on Sept. 27, Netflix Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos predicted, “‘Squid Game’ will definitely be our biggest non-English language show in the world, for sure.”

“It’s only been out for nine days, and it’s a very good chance it’s going to be our biggest show ever,” he said at the time — a prediction that has since come to pass.

Meanwhile, foreign media continued to shower “Squid Game” with praise. The US entertainment magazine “Variety” attributed the series’ success to characters whose situations are “both universal and typically Korean.”

Bloomberg said that “Squid Game” showed how Korean creators are capable of producing content that can compete with Hollywood.

By Suh Jung-min, staff reporter

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