Squid Game Is Close to Being a Billion Dollar Hit for Netflix


Squid Game is a bonafide hit. In addition to being Netflix's most-watched series ever, it might end up earning the stream an insane amount of money. A new report from Bloomberg suggests the Korean-language series has generated over $890 million in an "impact value" for the streamer. A show's impact value is a proprietary metric used by Netflix to consider a property's respective economic contribution while factoring in subscriber costs and other additional revenues.

It's even more impressive when you find out the nine-episode series reportedly cost under $22 million — or $2.4 million per episode — to make. In comparison, The Crown and Stranger Things cost $10 million and $8 million per episode, respectively.

The series has morphed into nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. The latest figures from Netflix suggest at least 132 million people have watched at least two minutes of the game in its first month on the service. At least 66-percent of those viewers have completed the entire series in the same timeframe.

Though Netflix has yet to officially put a second season into development, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is already thinking of ideas for a potential sophomore outing.

"But there are some other stories in the series that have not been addressed. For example, the story of the police officer and the story of his brother, the Front Man. So if I end up creating season two, I'd like to explore that storyline — what is going on between those two brothers?," he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

The writer added, "And then I could also go into the story of that recruiter in the suit who plays the game of ddakji with Gi-hun and gives him the card in the first episode. And, of course, we could go with Gi-hun's story as he turns back, and explore more about how he's going to navigate through his reckoning with the people who are designing the games. So, I don't know yet, but I'll just say there are a lot of possibilities out there for season two storylines."

The first season of Squid Game is now streaming on Netflix.

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