Oct 17 Reuters - Squid Game, Netflix Inc's biggest original series launch, is estimated to be worth almost $900 million for the streaming giant, Bloomberg News reported late on Saturday citing figures from an internal Netflix document.
The nine-episode thriller, in which cash-strapped contestants play deadly games with cash-strapped consequences in a bid to win 45.6 billion won $38.58 million became an international hit after it was launched last month.
In comparison to its estimated net worth, the show cost just $21.4 million to produce, Bloomberg said.
According to the report https: bloom.bg 3 lNzxGY, about 132 million subscribers had watched at least two minutes of the show in its first 23 days, easily breaking the record set by U.K. costume drama Bridgerton, streamed by 82 million accounts in its first 28 days.
Bloomberg had earlier announced the show had accumulated 111 million viewers, but said Netflix those figures were based on slightly older data.
The New York Times estimated that 89% of people who started the show watched more than one episode, and 66% of viewers watched the series in the first 23 days.
Netflix declined to comment on the report. An attorney for the company told Bloomberg that it would be inappropriate for Bloomberg to disclose confidential data contained in the documents it reviewed.
The series is also the first Korean drama to catch the top spot on Netflix in the United States and has since spurred interest among people learning Korean.
In Beijing, where Netflix is unavailable without a VPN, a Squid Game bakery has introduced a Netflix-themed confection-making challenge in its store.
The show has even received positive comments from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with the billionaire calling the work impressive and inspiring.