Netflix Animation ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Reaches 300 Million Views, First in Streaming History

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ has become the first Netflix title to surpass 300 million views, setting a new benchmark for global streaming success. Released on June 20, this animated musical follows a K-pop girl group as they fight against demons, and it remained the most-watched show on Netflix for 13 consecutive weeks after its debut. As of September 14, it had accumulated 301,420,000 views, surpassing both ‘Squid Game’ Season 1 and ‘Wednesday’ as the highest-viewed Netflix series ever. Its musical achievements are equally remarkable. The OST track “Golden” held the top spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 5 consecutive weeks, the longest duration ever held by an animated artist. This record exceeds those held by ‘The Archies’ with “Sugar, Sugar” in 1969 (4 weeks) and ‘Chippmunk Song’ by the Chippmunks in 1958 (4 weeks). In the UK’s official singles chart, “Golden” also topped the list for 6 weeks, achieving a total of 7 number-one placements. The quality of the OST was evident on the Billboard 200 albums chart as well. The ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ soundtrack reached album chart number one, with songs by the film’s fictional groups, HUNTR/X and Saja Boys, occupying spots within the top 10. Notably, for the first time in K-pop history, three tracks from the same project entered the top 5 simultaneously. On Spotify, HUNTR/X attracted over 50 million monthly listeners, surpassing actual K-pop groups such as BLACKPINK (32 million) and BTS (26 million). According to Nielsen’s streaming charts, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ stayed in the top 10 for 10 consecutive weeks, outperforming the 9-week streak held by Netflix’s original film ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ in 2021. It maintained strong momentum, recording 930 million minutes of viewing time during the week of August 18–24. The film’s impact extended beyond popular culture to local economies as well. K-pop stores in Utah, USA, saw a surge in inquiries for K-pop-related products following the movie’s release, with sales even boosting those of items from real groups like BLACKPINK and TWICE. Some customers stated that they became interested in K-pop because of this film. Additionally, the vocal clubs “Vocal Point” and “NoteWorthy” at Brigham Young University (BYU) shared social media content featuring covers of the film’s OST songs. The success of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ symbolizes a new era for Hallyu. Since the term “Hallyu” first appeared in 1999, K-pop, K-dramas, and K-beauty have spread worldwide, but this animation takes K-pop culture’s global influence to an entirely new level by having fictional K-pop idols achieve greater success than real ones.