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If you've been on Popverse in the past month, you know we've been covering the Squid Game season 2 premiere quite a lot. We told you about its breathtaking weekend debut, then the staggering numbers it pulled in after 11 days, and finally its place as the third most-watched show (at that point) in Netflix history. Now that some of the excitement has calmed down (though the streams certainly haven't), it's time to take a pause, take a big, surely-not-to-spit-out sip of water, and look at its full viewership numbers over the course of its first month.

Ah. Let me clean my screen off really quickly.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Squid Game season 2 was officially the biggest premiere for any streaming service over the entirety of 2024, with a full 4.92 billion minutes watched that year. To put that in perspective, that is more than double the second largest 2024 premiere, Virgin River season 6, which came at in at a still-mind-boggling 2.25 billion minutes watched.

(Since you may be wondering - #3 for Netflix was the holiday action thriller Carry-On, which scored 1.54 billion minutes. I haven't seen it, but I applaud a single movie for doing those numbers.)

Yes, I know, I hardly need to convince you any more of Squid Game's nigh-miraculous powers of getting people to point their faces at a screen, but there's another layer to this that makes those numbers even more impressive.

Netflix breaks up their viewership reporting by week, as you know if you've ever been to their Top 10 Tudum site. So, reporting of the Squid Game season 2 premiere came from the period of 23-29 December. But here's the thing: Netflix didn't drop Squid Game season 2 until December 26, meaning those 4.92 billion minutes watched...

Came from just four days.

I'm going to go ahead and end the report here, because there's simply nothing I can say to top that. Then again, it's not like Squid Game season 2 is going anywhere, so we maybe be reporting some kind of even more impressive score the K-Drama has racked up in just the next few days. And, hell, once season 3 comes around - 

Well, I won't be sipping any coffee, that's for sure.

Squid Game seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Netflix.

Fade to credits, then a pop-up of what to watch read next - just like Netflix:

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