Netflix subscribers across the globe have collectively watched 2.1 billion total hours of Squid Game through Sunday, according to the streamer’s new public popularity charts.
For context, that figure is equivalent to more than 239,700 years. In Squid Game‘s first 28 days on the platform, the series received 1.65 billion hours of viewing time, making it the most-watched show on Netflix. The second most-watched titled, Bridgerton, received less than half that figure in its first 28 days, clocking in at 625 million hours.
The new statistics have been made available through the official Top 10 Netflix website, which the streamer now plans to update every Tuesday with information regarding the most-viewed English and non-English titles during the previous Monday through Sunday.
“Figuring out how best to measure success in streaming is hard, and there’s no one perfect metric,” Pablo Perez de Rosso, vice president of content strategy, planning and analysis at Netflix, wrote of the initiative in a blog post. “Traditional measures like box office or share of audience (which was designed to help advertisers understand success on linear TV) aren’t relevant to most streamers, including Netflix.”
“Having looked at the different options, we believe engagement, as measured by hours viewed, is a strong indicator of a title’s popularity, as well as overall member satisfaction, which is important for retention in subscription services,” he added.
Earlier this month, Squid Game surpassed HBO‘s Game of Thrones in terms of viewership of online video content, earning 17 billion views across long and short-form videos on YouTube. The study, done by content analytics firm Vobile, looked at 129,000 uploads, including trailers, clips and real-world challenges and video games inspired by the series.
Elsewhere in entertainment, Quentin Tarantino has been sued by Miramax over Pulp Fiction NFTs.
