‘Squid Game’ dethroned on Netflix’s top 10 list by a new show

This article was published on 1/7 and republished on 1/8.

If you thought Squid Game Season 2, which set ratings records for its debut, would stay atop Netflix’s top 10 list for weeks and weeks, you’d be wrong. At least that’s true in America, where it just ranked No. 1 upon arrival of WWE Monday Night RAWthe new acquisition from Netflix that will be shown for a long, long time and I wonder if it will consistently take the top spot or if it is just for the introduction here.

The debut of RAW is a whopping 183 minutes, over three hours, and featured the likes of The Rock and others returning to the main event. And unlike other Netflix shows, part of the stipulation here is traditional commercial breaks.

Like RAW of old, this will actually be shown every single week for well over a decade. Yes, that’s the deal that Netflix made, which is reportedly worth over $5 billion. Yes, billion, with a B. We’ve hit 1,650 episodes of RAW and we’re getting hundreds more on Netflix itself. I’ll actually be pretty bored if it keeps hitting number one every single week.

Of course, Squid Game still performs amazingly. We still don’t know its first weekly numbers yet, but we should get them soon, and I expect them to potentially be record-breaking, just like the early premiere was. The Squid Game will return for Season 3 in 2025, but it could be as soon as June, according to Netflix, who leaked the data itself briefly. It wraps up and then leads into Netflix’s two other big releases later this year, Stranger Things Season 5 and Wednesday Season 2. Between all three of these, RAW and other unexpected hits, this could be 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 beaten by Squid Game, so that’s solid. Virgin River and No Good Deed are still in the back half of the list, as is tidal wave drama La Palma. At the back of the list is Black Doves, the big hit from late December, and the recently added The Equalizer with Queen Latifah.

RAW is going to be a whole new era of live content for Netflix, and regardless of how you feel about pro wrestling, this is a huge deal for the service. We’ll see how it plays out from here over the next decade.

Update (1/8): I was waiting for new numbers to come out and Netflix is ​​now sharing the total week for Squid Game. As expected, it continues to set records. Squid Game has 58.2 million views for the week, already making it the second most watched non-English Netflix series of all time.

The new weekly figure can be added to the total for 126.2 million views in just 11 days, and this pace is a Netflix TV record. It’s on track to surpass Squid Game Season 1, although I think the original season had a slower burn in terms of virality. Still, nothing can be ruled out and the show is setting record after record at the moment, so it could have a good shot when all is said and done.

There was some additional interesting non-Squid Game news, as Netflix has revealed that #1 staple Carry-On is now the fifth most watched Netflix original movie of all time with 149.4 million views in just four weeks. No word on a sequel, which may seem inevitable, but previous Netflix megahits have had trouble getting follow-ups together like #1 all-time, Red Notice.

We’ll keep tracking the Squid Game and see what records it breaks next.

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