Netflix's show data is usually kept under lock and key, so it is not accessible to the public. This has given Netflix new insight into the meaning of the South Korean drama Squid Game's success. The result was a lot of people staying on the job until the end and buckets and buckets worth of money.
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Bloomberg published a Sunday report citing confidential information from Netflix documents. It stated that Squid Game would generate approximately $900 million in company value. This is not a sales number, as Netflix doesn't sell any specific shows. It simply reflects how Netflix calculates the show's contribution to its bottom line by counting how many people have watched it.
This would be an impressive number, but it is even more remarkable that the show cost only $21.4 million. Entertainment executives claim that Squid Game would have been more expensive to produce in America, where top talent is highly sought after and studios operate according to union production regulations.
Bloomberg's report also included detailed information on data that investors, Hollywood and even show creators had been clamouring for for years.
Netflix, for example, does not release data about how many people have watched at least 2 minutes of a show, nor how many people have finished a show. At least, not yet.
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Bloomberg reports that Netflix estimates that 89% viewers who began watching Squid Game watched at least 75 minutes. This translates into more than one episode. Referring to the above, there are 132 million viewers who have viewed at least one episode in the first 23 days.
The outlet reports that 66% of viewers finished the show within the first 23 days. This is a total of 87 million viewers.
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Bloomberg reported that viewers spent over 1.4 billion hours viewing Squid Game.
These data are very informative and will fuel Netflix's desire to find more international content. It may also motivate other studios not located in the United States to seek out good shows. This makes me happy as a K-drama fan and international show lover. There are many great shows all over the globe, and I am grateful for the chance to see them on mainstream streaming services.
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Netflix is not happy that Bloomberg published its confidential internal data. Through its attorney, the company informed Bloomberg that publishing the data in the documents would be inappropriate.
The attorney stated that Netflix does not disclose these metrics to anyone outside of the company.
