Netflix series Squid Game takes social media by storm
For the past three weeks, Netflix users have seen their top favorite come and go, yet one show has remained on top.
Squid Game is a show that has broken language barriers whilst commenting on grave societal issues, such as poverty and sexism.
While the genre has been around for decades — popularized by Japanese thriller “Battle Royale” in 2000 — Squid Game taps into the childhood psyche with its use of classic childhood games, such as tug of war and red light, green light.
Squid Game is a South Korean dystopian thriller, riddled with unruly violence that has left each person who has watched it itching to see what happens next.
The series follows the lives of 456 people as they participate in childhood games for a chance to win 45.6 billion won, which equals roughly $38.1 million USD. Within the first episode, the viewer quickly learns that those who lose will face deadly consequences.
Squid Game became a worldwide hit after being released on September 17 and reached #1 in the United States four days later where it has sat ever since.
It joins the likes of Bridgerton, Money Heist and Stranger Things as one of the most watched shows on Netflix. FlixPatrol, a website dedicated to tracking popularity amongst shows on Netflix, reported that Squid Game was the most watched show in over 80 countries.
Many popular movie franchises in the United States, most notably the Hunger Games and The Purge, follow the same last-man-standing premise. However, Squid Game maintains various socio political themes, like South Korean, Academy Award winning, Parasite.
Not only is the show on Netflix, but Squid Game has ventured out and taken social media by storm. Since its debut, Instagram has amassed over 605 thousand posts using #SquidGame while the hashtag on twitter is raking in hundreds of thousands of tweets every day.
Outside of Netflix, “Squid Game” has primarily seen success on popular video sharing app Tik Tok, where #SquidGame has accumulated over 34 billion views. Videos featuring the show’s dalgona game, a challenge consisting of cutting various shapes from honeycomb toffee candy without breaking the shape, have garnered hundreds of millions of views.
