How much money did Squid Game make?

According to Bloomberg data, Netflix anticipates "Squid Game" to boost the company's value by close to $900 million.

"Squid Game" stands out for both its widespread appeal and reasonably low price. The South Korean show generated $891.1 million in impact value, a metric the company uses to evaluate the performance of individual shows about indebted people competing in a fatal game for a cash prize.

The production of the show's first season only cost $21.4 million, or $2.4 million per episode while things were ramped up for season two as the budget was set at ₩100 billion. These numbers come from a document that breaks down Netflix's performance metrics for season one of Squid Game.

The document highlights how profitable this one series has been for Netflix and provides the most illuminating view yet of how the most well-known streaming platform in the world evaluates the quality of its shows.

Netflix has self-selected viewership metrics available for a select few TV shows and movies, but it withholds its more comprehensive metrics from the media, investors, and even the shows' creators. Even as Netflix has started to release data in dribs and drabs, estimating the popularity of a specific show has evolved into something of a parlor game in Hollywood.

What other statistics did the Netflix document reveal?

Certain statistics are self-evident and replicate information that Netflix and other services already report. In the first 23 days of the show, roughly 142 million people watched at least two minutes of "Squid Game," breaking the previous Netflix record held by "Bridgerton." For some shows, Netflix makes available to the public a two-minute estimate.

The company claimed that 111 million viewers had begun watching the series in October 2021, but that figure was based on slightly older data.

While Netflix has revealed the number of users who start a show, it has not yet revealed the number of users who finish the series or stay to watch more of the show (completion rate). The average number of viewers for a series is reported by linear TV networks, making the Netflix two-minute numbers appear inflated in comparison.

Netflix estimates that in the case of "Squid Game," 89% of viewers who began the series watched at least 75 minutes (more than one episode), and 66% of viewers, or 87 million people, finished the series within the first 23 days. Over 1.4 billion hours have been spent watching the show overall, which was created by privately held Siren Pictures.

What is the Squid Game series?

Netflix currently has the South Korean TV show Squid Game available. The survival drama was written and directed by Hwang Dong Hyuk. The Netflix-distributed series, which has 16 episodes spread across two seasons, debuted in all countries on September 17, 2021.

Seong Gi-hun, a divorced and indebted man, is the star of the show. He is asked to participate in a series of kid's games for a chance to win a sizable cash prize. When he accepts the offer, he is taken to an unidentified location, where he meets 455 other players who are all in serious financial trouble.

The players are required to wear green tracksuits, and masked guards in pink jumpsuits constantly keep an eye on them. The Front Man, who is dressed in a black mask and uniform, is in charge of controlling the games.

The players quickly learn that losing the games results in their demise, with each demise raising the total number of possible grand prizes by 100 million (in Won, Korean currency). To try to survive the physical and psychological twists of the games, Gi-hun teams up with other players, including his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo.

The show has also won numerous awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries, or Television Film for O Yeong-su and the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for Lee Jung-jae and HoYeon Jung, respectively. All three actors made history by becoming the first Korean actors to win in those categories.

The first season received 14 Primetime Emmy nominations, including one for Best Drama, making it the first non-English language programme to do so. Jung-jae also won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, making him the first Asian actor to do so for a non-English series.

What happened in the last episode of the Squid Game?

Gi-hun defeats Sang-woo in the final match of the eponymous Squid game but chooses not to kill him; instead, he uses the third clause to implore Sang-Woo to end the match. Sang-woo instead asks Gi-hun to take care of his mother before stabbing himself in the neck. In order for Gi-hun to access the prize money, he is sent back to Seoul with a bank card, but he soon learns that his mother has passed away. After a year, Gi-hun is still traumatized and hasn't spent any of his winnings out of guilt.

He discovers Oh Il-nam on his deathbed after getting an invitation card from his gganbu. Il-nam explains that he designed the game as a way to entertain other wealthy, bored people like himself. He became a member of Gi-hun's group out of nostalgia, playing games he used to play as a child. Il-nam bets with Gi-hun whether a helpless man lying on a street corner will be found before midnight as they converse.

After the man is saved, Il-nam passes away. Gi-hun returns to Sae-brother Byeok and arranges for his care with the help of Sang-woo's mother and a portion of the prize money. Gi-hun sees the same game recruiter playing ddakji with another desperate player as he heads to the airport to meet up with his daughter in Los Angeles, but is only able to obtain that player's invitation card.

Before getting on the plane, he calls the card's number and demands to know who is in charge of the games. He is sternly told to board the aircraft by the person who answered the phone, but Gi-hun hangs up and goes back to the terminal.