Hellbound, the South Korean show that released on Netflix on Friday, dethroned Squid Game to become the streaming platform’s most popular show with 43 million hours of viewership, according to the weekly viewership data.
The six-episode show, created by Yeon Sang-ho and Choi Gyu-seok, is based on Sang-ho’s popular webtoon of the same name.
According to Netflix, Hellbound “tells the story of supernatural beings appearing and condemning people to hell, resulting in a religious group gaining prominence while others investigate the truth behind this strange phenomenon.”
Hellbound features actors Yoo Ah-in, Park Jeong-min, Kim Hyun-joo, Won Jin-a, Yang Ik-june, Kim Do-yoon, Kim Shin-rock, and Ryu Kyung-soo.
Earlier, Squid Game topped the streaming charts for nine weeks since its release in September. It became Netflix’s biggest title ever and amassed over 142 million household views in the first four weeks of its release, with the majority of views coming from outside its home market. It also ranked as the streamer’s top show in 94 countries, including the US.
Squid Game is written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, who has films like Miss Granny (remade in Telugu as Oh Baby! with Samantha Akkineni) to his credit. The director recently confirmed a second season for the show.
While the survival game show continues to be the most-watched show ever on Netflix, with 1.6 billion hours of viewership, Hellbound seems to have surpassed it in terms of the 24-hour metric.
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According to FlixPatrol, Hellbound became Netflix’s most-watched show on Saturday, a day after its release. It topped the streaming charts in over 80 countries.
Netflix’s data also saw Red Notice break into the ‘Most Popular Netflix English Films’ list and take the second spot behind Bird Box after amassing 277 million hours of views. Bird Box tops the list with 282 million hours of views.
Other English films to feature in the Top 10 list this week included The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star, Christmas Flow, and Love Hard. Meanwhile, Just Short of Perfect, 7 Prisoners, Dhamaka, Prayers for the Stolen, Love Me Instead, and the anime film Earwig and the Witch featured in the non-English language Top 10 films list.