Admittedly we love K-dramas. The genre has taken the world by storm fuelled undoubtedly by the Hallyu wave permeating all over the world. A recent study on the most searched Korean dramas supports this, revealing the top ranked shows fans across the world are repeatedly searching for.
The study was conducted by cybersecurity experts VPN Overview. According to the company, they analysed a list of the most popular Korean dramas of the last few years, both available on Netflix and other platforms, to discover which one is the most searched worldwide.
After tabulating the results, Squid Game emerged the top of the list of most searched Korean dramas. Released on Netflix on 17 September 2021, the gritty K-drama takes first place with almost 15 million average monthly searches, seven times the second on the list.
Squid Game Reigns Supreme
A worldwide success, the first season of Squid Game received a whopping 1.65 billion hours of viewing only in the first month after its release, according to the streaming platform, which are the equivalent of 182,000 years. The survival drama follows the story of a group of 456 people, all in deep financial hardship, who are invited to play a series of deadly children’s games for the chance to win a large sum of money.
Second on the list is All of Us Are Dead with almost three million average monthly searches. The series revolves around a group of high schoolers who have to fight a zombie apocalypse that breaks out unexpectedly and is based on a Naver webtoon of the same name. The Korean zombie series was released on 28 January 2022 and it has been renewed for a second season.
Third on the list of most searched Korean dramas was Business Proposal with 1,510,000 average monthly searches. First of many romance dramas in the list, Business Proposal tells the story of an employee who accepts to go on a blind date instead of her friend but finds out that the date is actually her boss. It aired from 28 February 2022 on SBS and is also available on Netflix in selected regions.
Further down on the list, True Beauty, inspired by a popular webtoon of the same name, is fourth with 1,470,000 average monthly searches, while Our Beloved Summer is fifth with 924,000 average monthly searches. Both romance dramas, the first was released from 9 December 2020 on tvN, while the second aired from 6 December 2021 on SBS TV.
Here are the most searched Korean dramas worldwide
- Squid Game (2021) – 14,720,000 searches
- All Of Us Are Dead (2022) – 2,840,000 searches
- Business Proposal (2022) – 1,510,000 searches
- True Beauty (2020) – 1,470,000 searches
- Our Beloved Summer (2021) – 924,000 searches
- Crash Landing On You (2019) – 884,000 searches
- Hellbound (2021) – 879,000 searches
- Itaewon Class (2020) – 680,000 searches
- Love Alarm (2019) – 592,000 searches
- Hospital Playlist (2020) – 562,000 searches
(Main and featured image: Netflix)
