‘Squid Game’ is No. 1 among U.S. Netflix viewers

A scene from Netflix Korean original ″Squid Game″ [NETFLIX]

The Netflix original series “Squid Game” ranked No. 1 in the U.S., the first Korean series to do so.

According to streaming analytics company FlixPatrol, “Squid Game” surpassed the highly popular British teen comedy-drama series “Sex Education,” which had previously topped the U.S. chart. On Netflix’s global top 10 TV show list, “Squid Game” is No 2.

Before “Squid Game,” the Korean original series “Sweet Home,” released last December, reached No. 3 for U.S. viewership.

“Squid Game” topped charts in 14 territories including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Singapore.

The story revolves around 456 people on a secluded island playing life-or-death survival games to win prize money of 45.6 billion won ($39.5 million).

Actor Lee Jung-jae stars along with Park Hae-soo, Oh Young-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi and Kim Joo-ryoung.

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who was behind "Silenced" (2011), "Miss Granny" (2014) and "The Fortress" (2017), wrote the script and directed.

Although critics have assailed a narrative overly familiar from other survival game movies, the actors’ performances have been praised along with the structuring of the games.

The series is rating 100 percent fresh by critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website and has an 8.3 out of 10 rating on entertainment database IMDb.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]