Squid Game Reality Show Dominates Week: Here's How Many People Watched, How It Helped Bring Original Series Back Into Top 10

Streaming giant Netflix Inc NFLX announced in June 2022 that it would create a second season of the hit series "Squid Game" and a reality show based on the popular series as well.

The reality series premiered on Netflix last week.

What Happened: Released in September 2021, "Squid Game" became a cultural phenomenon and the most-watched series on Netflix of all time. In its first 28 days of release, viewers watched 1.65 billion hours of the series.

Fans of the hit non-English language drama have been eager for more content and are eagerly awaiting the release of a second season, which was confirmed by Netflix last year.

Netflix released a reality show "Squid Game: The Challenge" last week, which may be enough to tide over fans of the series.

The reality show, which featured a record-breaking $4.65 million prize, followed the games played in the original series with 456 contestants competing.

The series is 10 episodes long and will be released by Netflix in three batches. Netflix released the first five episodes in the series on Nov. 22. A second batch of four episodes will be released on Nov. 29. The final episode will be released on Dec. 6.

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The Viewership Figures: Netflix released its weekly top 10 lists and "Squid Game: The Challenge" was the most-watched English-language television series of the week.

The first five episodes were watched by viewers 85.7 million hours with 20.1 million total views. The series was rated top 10 by viewership across 93 countries.

The original "Squid Game" series ranked in the top 10 among non-English languages with 13.3 million hours viewed. This made the first time the series was in the top 10 since June 2022 and was the series' 21^st overall week in the top 10.

Strong viewership for the “Squid Game” reality series will likely lead to increased demand for the second season of the hit series, which does not have a release date scheduled.

NFLX Price Action: Netflix shares trade at $479.01 versus a 52-week trading range of $273.41 to $485. Shares of Netflix are up 62% year-to-date in 2023.

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Photo: Courtesy Netflix