Netflix Strikes Back With 'Squid Game' And 'Sex Education' [Parrot Analytics]

Wednesday, 29 September 2021, 6:51 am
Press Release: Parrot Analytics

The first half of Netflix’s 2021 has featured consistently record low digital original demand shares each quarter and subscriber losses in the US and Canada, but a string of September releases has brought global audiences back to Netflix Originals in droves.

A surprise trio of international Netflix Original series are allowing the streaming giant to close Q3 2021 on a high note. This matters because audience demand for original programming is the key indicator of subscriber growth for SVODs.

Britain’s Sex Education, Spain’s La Casa De Papel, and South Korea’s shocking smash hit Squid Game - which Netflix claims is on track to be its most viewed series ever - are topping the charts as some of the most in-demand TV series in the world across all platforms in recent days.

Over the last week (September 19-25, 2021), Netflix accounted for three of the top five shows by global audience demand across all platforms:

Sex Education - whose widely praised third season released September 17 - was the number one show globally, with 77.6x more demand than the average show worldwide.
La Casa De Papel - which dropped its penultimate batch of episodes on September 3 and dominated the worldwide demand charts ever since - came it at number two with 74.2x.
Squid Game - a South Korean series that was released with very little fanfare on September 17 and rapidly became a word of mouth global sensation - was in fifth place worldwide with 61.2x.

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Zeroing in on the data for the most recent day (September 25), the three aforementioned Netflix Originals are now the three most in-demand shows in the world across all platforms.

Sex Education remains the top show with global audiences, with 72.7x more demand than the average show worldwide.
Squid Game has rocketed up to become the number two show in the world with 71.8x, within striking distance of Sex Education.
La Casa De Papel is starting to trail off slightly, holding at number three worldwide with 70.8x.

A look at the time shift analysis for the three series’ debuts as Netflix Originals (La Casa De Papel’s first two seasons originated on Spanish TV), shows how differently they have captured attention, and highlights the potential of Squid Game to equal or surpass these proven Netflix hits.

Seven days from release, Squid Game is more in demand than La Casa De Papel was following its season three release - the first season to premiere on Netflix.
Squid Game is also still growing its global audience demand, in contrast to La Casa De Papel season 3 which was tapering off in demand at the same point.
Sex Education season one was plateauing around its first week of availability, and Squid Game is far ahead of the comparable debut week for Sex Education.
The trend line for Squid Game shows that global audiences are still discovering this new show. It has room to grow even further, with a very good chance of becoming the number one show in the world across all platforms later this week.

Parrot Analytics

Global television demand measurement

Parrot Analytics is the leading global content demand analytics company for the multi-platform TV business. With the world's largest TV audience demand datasets, the company currently tracks more than 1.5B daily expressions of demand in over 100 languages from 200+ countries to reveal the content consumers engage with and watch the most across platforms.

As a trusted partner to some of the biggest media companies and content creators in the world, Parrot Analytics optimises content workflows in real time. The company's TV analytics products result in better production, distribution, acquisition and marketing decisions, as well as accelerated SVOD platform success.