Squid Game eats the world
September 17, 2021
A bleak Korean survival drama in which indebted contestants play deadly children's games for cash became, within a month, the most-watched show in Netflix's history, viewed in ninety countries simultaneously. Pink jumpsuits appeared at Halloween parties from Berlin to Buenos Aires. K-content, K-pop, K-cinema: the Korean wave had become a kind of global lingua franca.
In context
Also in 2021 (8 other events on record)
- Taliban return to Kabul · Central Asia · War
- U.S. Capitol stormed · North America · Politics
- James Webb Space Telescope launches · North America · Science
- Perseverance lands on Mars · North America · Science
- Myanmar coup · Southeast Asia · Politics
- Omicron variant emerges · Africa · Disaster
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in Culture
Era
Contemporary (2001–2026), one of 196 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources