A new drama movie featuring a major South Korean star has found success on Netflix. Netflix is a prominent global streaming platform that is known for both its library of licensed movie and television shows and a wide variety of original тιтles. Some of its most popular offerings include the retro sci-fi fantasy series Stranger Things, the TSA thriller movie Carry-On, the Addams Family reimagining Wednesday, the Regency era romance adaptation Bridgerton, and the murderer-based Ryan Murphy anthology series Monster.
Netflix has curated a large international audience, both with subтιтled and dubbed English-language projects and a variety of regional movies and television series that are available globally. Some of the platform’s most popular content has come from these regional production arms, including Spain (Money Heist, Berlin, Elite), and South Korea (Sweet Home, All of Us Are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, Extraordinary Attorney Woo). In fact, the K-drama thriller series Squid Game is one of their most popular series ever, with season 1 being the platform’s most-watched season of television across all languages and season 2 being the third most-watched.
The Match Has Landed On A Major Streaming Chart
The South Korean Movie Centers A Squid Game Alumnus
The Match is finding its audience on Netflix. The Korean-language movie, which debuted in theaters in South Korea on March 26, is now available in select regions on the streaming platform, including the United States and many countries in Asia. It features Squid Game star Lee Byung-hun as real-life Go champion Cho Hun-hyun, who becomes a mentor to the talented young player Lee Chang-ho (played by Yoo Ah-in when he is older and Kim Kang-hoon when he is younger), with whom he eventually has friction.
Lee Byung-hun, who played The Front Man in a recurring role in season 1 and as a series regular in season 2, is one of the few stars set to appear in all three seasons of the series.
Netflix has calculated their official global chart of the Top 10 most-watched non-English movies for the week of May 5 through May 11. The Match landed at No. 5 on the chart (behind Karol G: Tomorrow was Beautiful, Last Bullet, Bad Influence, and the runaway hit Exterritorial) with 4.1 million viewers amᴀssing a total of 7.9 million viewing hours. It is in the Top 10 in eight countries, all of which are part of the continent of Asia, including Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, it was only No. 1 in its home territory of South Korea.
What This Means For The Match
The Movie Is One Of Many Recent South Korean Netflix Successes
While The Match is so far only a big performer on the streamer in Asia, the fact that it has now landed on this major chart means that interest could spread in other regions in which the movie is available. Should that be the case, it could join a number of successful ongoing Netflix K-dramas to cement the major success of South Korean programming in 2025. In recent months, the charts have been dominated by South Korean тιтles including Weak Hero: Class 2, Heavenly Ever After, When Life Gives You Tangerines, Resident Playbook, and many more.
Source: Netflix
