This article was published on 1/7 and republished on 1/8.
If you thought that Squid Game season 2, which set viewing records for its debut, was going to stay on top of Netflix’s top 10 list for weeks and weeks, you’d be wrong. At least that’s true in America where it has just been unseated at #1 by the arrival of WWE Monday Night RAW, the new acquisition by Netflix that will be airing for a long, long time, and I do wonder if it’s going to be consistently taking the top spot, or if it’s just for the introduction here.
The debut of RAW clocks in at a massive 183 minutes, over three hours, and featured the likes of The Rock and others returning for the big event. And unlike other Netflix shows, part of the stipulation here is traditional commercial breaks.
Like old RAW, this will in fact air every single week for well, a decade. Yes, that’s the deal that Netflix made which is reportedly worth over $5 billion. Yes, billion, with a B. We have reached 1,650 episodes of RAW and we’re about to get hundreds more on Netflix itself. I will in fact be pretty bored if it keeps hitting number one every single week.
Squid Game, of course, is still doing amazingly. We still do not know its first week numbers yet, but we should get those soon, and I expect them to be potentially record-breaking just like the early premiere was. Squid Game will return for season 3 in 2025, but it may be as soon as June, according to Netflix leaking the data itself, briefly. It will conclude then lead into Netflix’s other two huge releases later in the year, Stranger Things season 5 and Wednesday season 2. Between all three of these, RAW and other unexpected hits, this may turn into a record year for Netflix.
The rest of the list has Missing You, a new crime drama that’s done pretty well and has only been bested by Squid Game, so that’s solid. Virgin River and No Good Deed are still on the back half of the list, and so is tidal wave drama La Palma. Bringing up the rear of the list is Black Doves, the big hit from late December, and the newly added The Equalizer with Queen Latifah.
RAW is going to be a whole new era in live content for Netflix, and no matter what you think of pro wrestling, this is a huge deal for the service. We’ll see how it plays out from here over the next entire decade.
Update (1/8): I was waiting for new numbers to come in, and Netflix is now sharing the week one totals for Squid Game. As expected, it is continuing to set records. Squid Game has 58.2 million views for the week already making it the second most-viewed non-English Netflix series of all time.
That new weekly number can be added to the total for 126.2 million views in just 11 days, and this pace is a Netflix TV record. It is on pace to surpass Squid Game season 1, though I think the original season had more of a slower burn in terms of virality. Still, nothing can be ruled out and the show is setting record after record at present, so it may have a good shot when all is said and done.
There was some additional, interesting non-Squid Game news in that Netflix has revealed that #1 staple Carry-On is now the fifth most-watched Netflix original movie ever with 149.4 million views in just four weeks. No word on a sequel, which may seem inevitable, but past Netflix megahits have had trouble getting follow-up films together like #1 all-time, Red Notice.
We will keep tracking Squid Game and see what records it breaks next.
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