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The ‘Squid Game’ series appears to be firmly establishing itself as a major hit for Netflix. As soon as ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 (hereinafter referred to as Squid Game 2) was released, it set a record that surpassed the previous work.
According to Netflix’s official site ‘Netflix Top 10’, Squid Game 2 recorded a total of 68 million views (viewing time divided by the total running time of the work) in the fourth week of December (23rd to 29th), the first week of its release. It far surpassed the previous record of 50.1 million views for Season 1 of the American drama ‘Wednesday’.
![“Would you like to play a game with me?”… Squid game that shook the distributors[동아리]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2025/01/03/130783280.2.jpg "“Would you like to play a game with me?”… Squid game that shook the distributors[동아리]")
Viewing time is also a record. Squid Game 2, with a total running time of 7 hours and 10 minutes (7 episodes), secured 487.6 million viewing hours worldwide. This is higher than the previous record (448.73 million hours) released in the fourth week of September 2021 (20th to 26th). As Squid Game 2 was a box office success, the previous work also ranked 3rd in viewing time (67.1 million hours) in the fourth week of December.
Attention is focused on whether it will be possible to break the cumulative viewing time record. Squid Game 2 ranked 7th in the most popular non-English TV show of all time on Netflix just one week after its release. Currently, the number one cumulative viewing time is Squid Game Season 1 (2.252 billion hours).
“I want to play a game too”… Experiential marketing perspective
The topicality of Squid Game 2 was predicted to some extent. Regardless of the evaluation of the work, Squid Game 1 was a huge success and interest was high even before its release. Accordingly, distributors also ramped up marketing even before the release of Squid Game 2.
As ‘games’ are an important element in the Squid Game series, experiential marketing in which consumers participate directly attracts particular attention. First of all, Hite Jinro’s Chamisul is introducing four types of goods using squid game characters. The Younghee game machine and the Pink Guard toad figure are on display in the store as part of a consumer participation event, and the colored glasses and apron provide a special experience to consumers at the drinking point.
Among them, Younghee’s game machine is a hot topic on social media. The Younghee game machine, inspired by the squid game ‘The Rose of Sharon Has Bloomed’, is a drinking game machine where when you press a button, Younghee’s head rotates and the person in the direction that Younghee is looking drinks drinks. It is popular because of its game concept that matches the character of Younghee.
It appears that the Younghee game console is provided on loan when purchasing Hite Jinro products such as Chamisul at the discretion of the store owner. Even though it is not for sale, it is so popular that many posts are posted online asking how to get a Younghee game console, and there are also posts selling the product used at a high price.
Regarding the product, an official from Hite Jinro said, “To provide ‘fun’ at drinking parties, we have prepared differentiated goods in collaboration with Squid Game, which has recently become a global issue,” and added, “Chamisul will continue to create a trend through collaboration with the No. 1 brand.” “We plan to continue to strengthen it,” he explained.
GS25, a convenience store operated by GS Retail, is an official partner of Netflix and opened a squid game pop-up store in Doortuseongsu, Seongdong-gu, Seoul on the 20th of last month. This place was decorated as a game set, actively reflecting the squid game world view.
The game mission, which is the main event, is inspired by the slogan ‘Be strong, be strong, be strong’ revealed in the trailer for Squid Game 2, and consists of three types: ‘Let’s sweep with strength,’ ‘Let’s build wealth with courage,’ and ‘Let’s focus firmly.’ If you succeed in the mission of putting food in a box or stacking it up quickly as shown in the picture, you will receive a squid game-related product.
A foreign tourist I met at the Squid Game pop-up store on the 3rd said, “I enjoyed Season 1 of Squid Game. “I happened to be on a trip to Korea, and there was a pop-up store like this, so I visited it,” he said. “It was an unfamiliar game, but it was fun to experience it firsthand.”
According to GS25, since the pop-up store opened, the average number of daily visitors to Door Toseongsu has reached 1,000. Last Christmas holiday, the number increased to 1,500, recording the highest number of door-to-door visitors this year.
K-content and K-food that shook the world… The meeting of two Korean waves
As K-content, represented by the squid game series, becomes popular, it is K-food that has benefited the most. The movie ‘Parasite’, which swept the Best Picture and Best Director awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the American Academy Awards, sparked the ‘Chapaguri’ (Chapagetti + Raccoon) craze around the world. As BTS member Jimin, the representative K-pop star, became known to enjoy eating ‘Fire Chicken Noodles’, Samyang Foods grew into an ‘export company’ with exports accounting for close to 80% of total sales.
Ramen also appears in Squid Game 1. It’s raw ramen. The scene of eating raw ramen with soju at a table in front of a convenience store attracted attention. Accordingly, Ottogi launched two new products called ‘Puseo Pusher’ in collaboration with Squid Game 2 in November last year. It comes in two flavors, ‘butter-grilled squid flavor’ and ‘hot spicy flavor,’ and is evaluated to go well with alcoholic beverages, and over 1.6 million units were sold in about 50 days after its launch. Hite Jinro also released the ‘Chamisul Squid Game Edition’ containing representative characters such as Younghee, Pink Guard, and Frontman.
GS25 is introducing over 30 types of squid game collaboration products through its door-to-door pop-up store. They range from convenience foods such as gimbap, ramen, tteokbokki, and gratin to desserts such as bread, cookies, and macarons, beverages such as energy drinks and lattes, and candies such as dalgona, jelly, and chocolate. Recently, the ‘5-player hex game set’ that appears in episode 4 of Squid Game 2, ‘Six Bridges’, was introduced for pre-order. It is a game set that allows you to enjoy 5 types of folk games, including △Takjichigi, △Biseokchigi, △Gonggi Game, △Top-chigi, and △Jegichagi.
CJ CheilJedang’s ‘Bibigo’, which promotes K-food starting with dumplings, is working with Netflix to carry out the Squid Game 2 global campaign in 14 countries, including Korea, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Bibigo’s core products, such as dumplings, kimchi, and seaweed snacks, were released in limited packages using characters in the content, and in Korea, frozen tteokbokki, three types of cup tteokbokki, royal dumplings, and whole shrimp dumplings were introduced. In particular, products using squid such as ‘Bibigo Whole Squid Dumplings’ and ‘Butter Squid Seaweed Snack’ were planned. In addition, there are plans to expand frozen kimbap (‘bibigo bulgogi kimbap’, etc.), which has been very popular overseas, into the U.S. and European markets.
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