"Squid Game" shattered records in 2024, becoming the most-watched series in a single week, with an astounding 4.9 billion minutes streamed from December 23 to December 29, according to Nielsen data.

The highly anticipated second season of the Korean survival drama premiered on Netflix on December 26, driving much of that massive viewership. The total viewing time included both seasons of the show—16 episodes in all—but over 4 billion of those minutes were from Season 2 alone, accumulated in just four days. As the buzz around the series continued into 2025, its popularity only grew further.

In that same week, "Squid Game" outperformed every other title by more than double. Still, several other films and series crossed the impressive milestone of 1 billion viewing minutes. Netflix's long-running drama "Virgin River" drew 2.2 billion minutes across its 64 episodes. Meanwhile, Dwayne Johnson's holiday movie "Red One" secured 1.8 billion, and Netflix's thriller "Carry-On" followed with 1.5 billion. Other titles crossing the billion-minute mark included "The Six Triple Eight", "Bluey", "Landman", and "The Equalizer".

Season 2 of "Squid Game" quickly cemented its place as one of Netflix's most successful releases ever. It became the platform's third most-watched TV season, trailing only Season 1 of the same series (265 million views) and "Wednesday" (252 million views). 

By December 30, just four days after its premiere, Season 2 had amassed 68 million views, setting a new record for Netflix's biggest TV debut. By January 5, 2025, it had climbed to 126.2 million views in just 11 days—an achievement unmatched by any other Netflix series in that timeframe.

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Unsurprisingly, the series dominated Netflix's non-English TV top 10 list for weeks, with Season 1 also making a strong comeback, landing at No. 3.