‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’ and K-Dramas Fuel Global Craze in Netflix’s 2025 Mid-Year Report
Jul 18, 2025
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In the first half of 2025, Netflix's total viewing time was around 95 billion hours. In particular, popular Netflix original works are gaining huge popularity even years after their release. According to the viewing status report, nearly half of the original content viewing time was taken up by works released in 2023 or earlier. Really? Popular Netflix original content such as Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, and House of Paper hit more than 100 million hours each in the first half of 2025.
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In the first half of this year, Korean contents of various genres such as series and animation were highlighted. First,
For reference,
Against the backdrop of Jeju Island, 'Fulled', which unravels the adventurous life of 'Ae-soon' and 'Gwan-sik' into four seasons, gained huge popularity with global viewers, recording about 35 million views in the first half of the year. In addition, "Severe Trauma Center" (34 million), a webcomic work set in the Korean medical community and schools, and ?
The animated movie "K-Pop Demon Hunters?" created a global syndrome based on Korean backgrounds and K-pop, and received about 37 million viewers in the first half of the year alone, less than a month after its release. Immediately after its release, the music of virtual K-pop bands appearing in the contents shook the OST world by making major global charts such as Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes charts. The soundtrack is currently ranked the highest among film music on the Billboard 200 in 2025.
Among the Korean contents in this report, Netflix owns less than 15% of IP, the same as last year. This shows that Netflix is expanding the global base of various Korean contents in flexible ways such as original, free-buy, and licensing.
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Meanwhile, as in last year, non-English-speaking content accounted for more than a third of the total viewing time in the first half of this year's viewing status report. In particular, as many as 10 of the 25 most viewed series in the first half of the year are non-English speaking works. This is in line with Netflix's belief that "good stories can come from anywhere" and Netflix's investment philosophy, which presents the best content in cooperation with local creators in each country.
European series such as Britain's Adolescence (145 million), Denmark's Secrets We Keep? (34 million), and Sweden's The Are Murders (33 million) were also popular in the first half of the year.
▶ Continuing genre diversity to provide a variety of viewing experiences
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In the first half of the year, Netflix focused on expanding the viewing experience by providing a variety of contents ranging from series and movies to animations.
WWE, which began broadcasting in some regions such as North America and Europe in January this year, provides fans with a different pleasure every week live. The entire event, including WWE RAW, received 280 million viewing hours during the first half of the year. In the animation genre,
In addition to K-pop Demon Hunters, Kids & Family contents also made strides. Ms. Rachel? Season 1? (53 million), a French animation called Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight (16 million) was popular, and Gabby's Dollhouse received 108 million combined views for the season.
In the comedy genre, "The Outsider" (41 million) and "The Four Seasons" (39 million) were loved worldwide.
The Global View Status Report, an indicator of members' viewing status, reveals the viewing time and number of views of all original and licensed works that have been viewed for at least 50,000 hours per half-year (total viewing time, ÷ total running time, rounding up by 100,000 units). Netflix is transparently releasing the weekly top 10 list as well as the entire global viewing status report twice a year from December 2023.
The full Netflix viewing status report for the first half of 2025 can be found in the Netflix newsroom.
lyn@sportschosun.com
