Why Netflix Keeps Betting Bigger on Korean Content — And Why It's Working



Netflix doesn't talk about most of its regional content strategies in dollar figures. Korea is an exception — the company has been open about investing $2.5 billion into building out its Korean slate since 2023, and 2025 was reportedly its biggest year yet for Korean entertainment output.


The numbers behind why this keeps happening

Squid Game isn't just Netflix's biggest Korean show — it's the most-watched non-English series the platform has ever released, full stop, and its first season still holds the all-time viewing hours record for any non-English title. That's the kind of number that reshapes a company's entire regional strategy, and everything since has essentially been Netflix trying to find the next version of that outcome.

It hasn't been a one-hit story, either. When Life Gives You Tangerines has become one of the platform's most acclaimed Korean originals, and newer releases like Teach You a Lesson have topped Netflix's non-English chart across dozens of countries within weeks of release. That spread — genre dramas, romance, survival thrillers, workplace comedies — is arguably more important than any single hit, because it proves Korean content isn't succeeding in one narrow lane.


What's actually driving this beyond "the shows are good"

A few structural things are worth separating out from just quality:

  • Production speed and cost. Korean dramas are typically shot and produced faster than equivalent US prestige television, which lets Netflix test more concepts without the multi-year commitment a US original usually requires.
  • A pre-existing global fanbase. K-pop and K-beauty had already built an audience primed to engage with Korean culture before Netflix scaled up its investment — the streaming bet arrived on top of demand that already existed, rather than trying to create it from scratch.
  • Domestic network partnerships. Deals with Korean broadcasters like tvN and SBS mean Netflix increasingly doesn't have to originate everything itself — it can license and globally distribute shows that were already succeeding domestically.

The honest caveat

Not everything Netflix greenlights in this space becomes a hit — for every Squid Game or Tangerines, there are Korean originals that barely register outside Korea. The volume of investment means more swings, not a guaranteed higher hit rate. What's changed is that Netflix now has enough of a track record here that even the swings that miss don't really slow the strategy down.


Related Reading

5 K-Dramas Worth Putting on Your Watchlist This August

Your Guide to Every Major K-Pop Comeback This August

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