Did ‘Squid Game’ Help Boost Netflix Subscriptions In Asian Market?

“Squid Game,” which is officially Netflix’s biggest show ever, may have contributed to the significant boost in the streamer’s paid subscriptions in the Asia-Pacific region for the third quarter.

Ever since it debuted on the streaming platform on Sept. 17, the South Korean-language drama thriller has been making big waves in the industry and on social media. In its latest earnings call Tuesday, Netflix announced that about 142 million households viewed “Squid Game,” putting it at the no. 1 spot in 94 countries.

Based on the data collected by the streamer and presented to its investors, it appears that “Squid Game,” among many other recently released content on the platform, drove more people to sign up for Netflix’s paid subscription plans. This boost was mostly felt in the Asian market, according to Nikkei Asia.

In the quarter ending on Sept. 30, Netflix gained 4.4 million new paid memberships worldwide. Among those signups, about half or 2.2 million were attributed to subscriptions from the Asia-Pacific region.

The significant growth in Asian market subscribers eclipses that of the figures collected from the U.S. and Canada market, the home market of Netflix. In its quarterly earnings report, the streaming giant disclosed that only 73,000 subscribers came from the region in the previous quarter.

While the number of new members gained in the U.S. and Canada is just a fraction of that of the Asia-Pacific region, this was an improvement from the 433,000 terminated subscriptions in the region during the June quarter.

Wall Street analysts previously projected Netflix to see a total growth of 8.33 million this year. But the excitement around “Squid Game” and the show’s growing fan base could beat industry forecasts and lead Netflix to secure around 8.5 million new customers by the end of 2021, according to Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Netflix has also announced its move to change its viewership metric following the success of the dark drama. The company said that in order for it to better measure client satisfaction and the overall success of its titles, it will now report the total number of hours subscribers watched a show within 28 days of its release.

“We think engagement as measured by hours viewed is a slightly better indicator of the overall success of our titles and member satisfaction. It also matches how outside services measure TV viewing and gives proper credit to rewatching,” Netflix said in its letter to investors.