Qnineteen hundred and fifty-six adults, lost and suicidal, in bottle green tracksuits, are changing the world of media. The South Korean series Squid Game (‘The Squid Game’, popular with Korean children), which features socially excluded people willing to gamble their lives on deadly hopscotch for a few million dollars, is the platform’s biggest popular hit. American Netflix, and the most watched series in the world: 142 million viewers in less than two months.
By presenting the results of the third quarter of its fiscal year, Tuesday, October 19, the Californian company estimated that this series had largely contributed to a spectacular rebound in subscriptions. While it had garnered only 5.5 million more in the first six months of 2021, it collected 4.4 million in the third quarter of the year alone and expects 8.5 million more. ‘by the end of the year.
A Grail that makes people prosper
It was time. For the first time in its history, Netflix, the channel with 213 million subscribers, saw the number of its American customers drop in the first half of the year, after the 2020 boom due to successive lockdowns. In addition, it faces formidable competition from Disney and HBO, which multiply the productions. Growth is therefore elsewhere, in Europe, and especially in Asia. Hence the investment in local series, some of which, surprisingly, are becoming global successes. This was the case with the French series Lupine, from spanish La Casa de papel and, of course, of Squid Game. Even in China, where this kind of bloody and decadent spectacle is strictly prohibited, the series circulates under the mantle and makes a splash.
And, as an additional surprise, spontaneously, millions of fans flock to the green tracksuits, the villains’ pink jumpsuits and the little Seoul wafers that the protagonists have to cut out on pain of death. Spontaneously, a derivatives market was set up, opening up unexpected income prospects for Netflix. The firm estimates that this series, which cost $ 21 million to produce (18 million euros), now represents a value of 900 million with variations in products, even in video games. A universe in creation, the Grail that has made Disney prosper for more than half a century. But in a “made in the world” version. And that changes everything.