Netflix denies $1 bil. revenue claim for ‘Squid Game’ Season 2

Actor Lee Jung-jae in a scene from Netflix series “Squid Game” Season 2 / Courtesy of Netflix

By Baek Byung-yeul

Netflix has denied reports claiming that “Squid Game” Season 2 will generate 1.5 trillion won ($1 billion) in revenues, even as the survival drama continues to break records since its first week of release.

K EnterTech Hub, a local media research organization, recently projected that Netflix will earn at least 1.5 trillion won from the new season of “Squid Game,” which was released on Dec. 26, last year.

In its analysis of the first and second seasons, K EnterTech Hub said Season 1 cost about 25 billion won to produce and generated around 1 trillion won in revenues, a return of about 40 times the production cost.

For Season 2, with production costs around 100 billion won, four times that of the previous season, projections suggested revenues of at least 1.5 trillion won, based on the first season’s performance trajectory.

In response, the U.S. streaming giant issued a statement, Wednesday, explaining that as a monthly subscription service, they cannot calculate revenues based on individual shows.

“Regarding the revenue analysis of ‘Squid Game 2’ released by a research organization, there are aspects that are completely different from the facts. As a monthly subscription service, Netflix cannot generate additional revenue based on the number of views or viewing time of individual works. So, it is impossible to calculate revenue based on the success of a single work,” Netflix said.

“There is no official information that allows for the estimation of monetary revenue from individual works. Netflix does not evaluate the performance of works in this way, nor can we do so.”

Netflix added that this estimation method is more suitable for analyzing box office performance based on movie ticket sales or revenue analysis of pay-per-view service.

“Netflix has a structure that produces works based on members’ monthly subscription fees. We express concern about the spread of inaccurate information due to incorrect analyses or claims that could cause significant misunderstandings about this business structure,” the streaming company said.

“Squid Game” Season 2 achieved the top spot in 93 countries within two days of its release, and also set a new viewership record in its first week.