Five years have passed since Netflix's Squid Game dropped and essentially rewrote the rules of global entertainment, according to Netflix K-Content's recent throwback post. The internet collectively lost its mind over a red-light-green-light death game.
For those who missed it: Squid Game arrived in September 2021 as a Korean-language drama about desperate contestants competing in childhood games for a massive cash prize. The show became the platform's most-watched season ever (at the time), broke language barriers in a way Hollywood had never managed, and sent every streaming service scrambling to understand the K-content market they'd been ignoring.
Squid Game's five-year run reveals entertainment's shift. Before this show, Korean television was niche outside Asia. After? It's a $10+ billion industry export that has reshaped Hollywood's strategy. Studios that greenlit 47 superhero sequels are now bankrolling Korean thrillers. That's Squid Game's effect.
The show's cultural grip persists. Halloween costumes. Fan theories. Merchandise in every airport gift shop. TikTok dances set to that iconic game-show music. The dalgona candy trend, the honeycomb challenge that went viral, showed how Squid Game crossed from screen into real life. Few shows achieve that kind of reach, let alone maintain it across five years.
Season 2 arriving later this year will test whether that momentum survives the gap. The original's strength was its contained rage: desperation, dark humor, and social commentary wrapped in storytelling that pulled viewers in. The risk with any sequel is overreach. But if Netflix learned anything from its own track record, it's that audiences will watch Squid Game regardless. They always do.
What show will replace Squid Game? What next wave of international content will shift global pop culture? Five years in, we still don't have an answer. And that's why Netflix is celebrating this milestone so hard.
