With the popularity of Squid Game interest in the South Korean language has also visibly increased. The language app Duolingo has seen a 76 percent increase in registrations from people who want to learn Korean since the series came out. “Partly thanks to the offer of, among other things, the Scandinavian and Spanish range of Netflix series, people accept that it really doesn’t all have to be in English anymore.”
Social media phenomenon
But that Squid Game would also become such a hit outside South Korea, it seems a surprise to Netflix, says Schrik. New series that Netflix expects to be widely viewed tend to be promoted more through advertisements and on billboards, as was done with series such as The Money Heist on Stranger Things.”
The human type Squid Game came to him this time, however, via a message on Twitter. And now it’s almost impossible to access social media without seeing a reference to the series. “The songs, the colorful environment and the costumes make the series a real social media phenomenon,” Schrik says.
Re-enacted at schools
For parents, the findability of the series outside Netflix poses a dilemma. Even though the series is intended for 16 years and older, younger children are also on TikTok and Instagram. Primary school children would recreate the games of the series, after which the losers are beaten, a Belgian school writes in a statement. Facebookpost to parents. In England, too, parents are urged not to let their children watch the series.
How long the popularity of the series lasts, according to Murphy, depends on a possible second season. “There seems to be a stepping stone to that in the last episode. I hope that the madness that is in it now remains and that the underlying social message remains.”
–
