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‘Squid Game’ season 2 is Netflix’s most-watched premiere of all time

The show is already one of the biggest foreign language series in history.

Squid Game Season 2 Teaser
Netflix

If people are tired of Squid Game, the numbers definitely don’t reflect that. The show’s second season debuted with 68 million views over the first four days after its release on Dec. 26. That smashes the record that Wednesday set back in 2022 when it debuted to 50.1 million views.

The show has also made an appearance on the most-watched foreign language series in the history of Netflix after just a week. The show’s first season currently sits at the top of that list with more than 250 million views, but season 2 has plenty of time to catch up and perhaps even surpass the first season.

It’s possible, though that this initial burst of excitement won’t be as sustainable as the slow build of the first season. Squid Game became a phenomenon almost by accident during its first season, but its second season debuted after being eagerly anticipated. A third season is reportedly on the way in 2025 that will wrap up the entire series, which is good news for those who were worried that season 2 left them on a cliffhanger.

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Squid Game wasn’t Netflix’s only success over the holiday season. The streamer also reported that roughly 25 million people watched each of their two NFL games, the first time the streamer has had access to one of linear TV’s last great treasures. Netflix will continue to broadcast Christmas Day games in future years, proving that it can do live sports just as well as broadcasters can. We’ll see just how high Squid Game can fly, but the show has already become one of the most successful in Netflix’s history.

Joe Allen
Contributor
Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…
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