Netflix's SQUID GAME Has Generated Almost a Billion Dollars in "Impact Value" — GeekTyrant (2024)

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Netflix's SQUID GAME Has Generated Almost a Billion Dollars in "Impact Value" — GeekTyrant? ›

Squid Game Increased Netflix's Value by Almost $1 Billion While Its Creator Received Virtually Nothing. Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has been candid about his creation, which was a smash hit for Netflix in 2021, didn't make him rich.

Squid Game was the ultimate justification for Netflix's then-nascent international expansion and prompted a doubling-down of the strategy. Today, 60% of Netflix's global audience has watched Korean content, while 70% of its viewers are outside the U.S.

Each episode of Squid Game: The Challenge cost around $1 million (£800k) to film, that's including the sets, costumes and looking after each contestant. There were 10 episode in total, meaning the show cost over $10 million (£7.8 million) to film!

$2 million of the budget was spent on sets and production, while the remaining $1.5 million was used for cash prizes. Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times noted that the video cost $134,600 per screen minute to produce, while Squid Game itself cost approximately $43,500 per screen minute.

The scripted drama Squid Game holds the record as Netflix's most popular series of all time, with over 1.65 billion view hours in the first 28 days after its September 2021 premiere.

Squid Game capitalizes on culturally specific Korean childhood games, such as dalgona, mugunhwa khoci pieot seumnida, and ojingeo, aiming to reclaim the nostalgic past of local Korean viewers, which in fact can also produce an othering of Korean culture from a global (non-Korean) audience.

Netflix turned a huge profit from the debut season, which cost about $2.4 million per episode to produce and increased the streamer's value by an estimated $900 million, per company documents. “Squid Game” increased the value of Netflix by an estimated $900 million.

Background: Joel Jay Lane, better known as Player 375 in “Squid Game: The Challenge” — and the lone Korean contestant in the Netflix reality show — debuted in 2014 as Jay as part of BTL (Beyond The Limit), a nine-member boy group under Kiroy Company.

Squid Game: The Challenge is an unscripted reality competition. Don't be fooled, Squid Game: The Challenge features real people vying for the very real chance of winning $4.56 million by playing a series of childhood games. The show isn't intended to be preplanned or scripted in any way.

She has been working at PEOPLE since 2023 and has previously worked for publications like TMZ and TooFab. Mai Whelan has finally received her long-awaited payout after winning Netflix's Squid Game: The Challenge!

Did Netflix fund the Squid Game? ›

Though he wrote the story in 2009, Hwang could not find a production company to fund the idea until Netflix took an interest around 2019 as part of a drive to expand their foreign programming offerings. Squid Game was released worldwide on September 17, 2021, to critical acclaim and international attention.

Even after discovering the show's compensation, the response remained the same: nothing. “It was all or nothing," Radhika said, referring to the prize money. "We were really in there acting like that for nothing, because the stakes were so high. It was $4.56 million.”

Therefore, the IRS is actually entitled to $1.68 million of her grand prize. In the end, Mai Whelan will be able to enjoy just $2.8728 million dollars of her earnings due to her lump sum payout likely landing her in the highest tax bracket.

The dystopian South Korean drama Squid Game has become Netflix's most popular series yet, drawing 111 million fans since its debut less than four weeks ago, the streaming service said Tuesday.

Netflix's subscriber base grew by 4.4 million in the last quarter, propelled in part by a new dystopian hit series, "Squid Game," which the company has called its "biggest series launch ever." The growth helped Netflix rake in $7.5 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2021, up 16% from the prior year.

"Squid Game has repetitive extreme violence throughout, and other shows might just have one or two scenes," says Dr. Cowan. "Repetitive violence has been shown to lead to increased violence and aggression in children. Additionally, this content can be traumatic for some to watch, leading to increased anxiety."

It is a compelling portrayal of the mixture of coercion and apparent choice that the players (and by implication we as citizens) face regarding participation in real life 'games' like work, housing, politics and so on.

Netflix's subscriber base grew by 4.4 million in the last quarter, propelled in part by a new dystopian hit series, "Squid Game," which the company has called its "biggest series launch ever." The growth helped Netflix rake in $7.5 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2021, up 16% from the prior year.

As a result, some contestants claim to have suffered from hypothermia and nerve damage. Recently, a contestant confirmed to EW that supplies ran low during filming, claiming that contestants were so desperate for chapstick that they ended up wiping lubricated condoms on their lips.