Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” Sets Historical Record with 48.16 Billion Views, Becoming a Global Phenomenon

The animated film “KPop Demon Hunters,” distributed by Netflix, has shattered previous viewing records. Released on July 20, 2025, it accumulated 48.16 billion views across the second half of 2025 (July to December), a milestone no other film or series on Netflix has ever achieved. Previously, the highest six-month viewing record was only 165 million views, highlighting how overwhelmingly successful “KPop Demon Hunters” has been.

To illustrate the scale of these numbers, compared to the second-highest film during the same period, “Happy Gilmore 2” with 135 million views, “KPop Demon Hunters” surpasses it by more than three times. Even more striking is that it exceeds the cumulative total of 445.8 million views from the top-performing films of the first half of 2025, namely “Action Is Back” with 164.7 million views, “Carry On” from the second half of 2024 with 137.3 million views, and “Damsel” from the first half of 2024 by 3.58 billion views.

Including the period from its release on June 20 up to early January 2026, “KPop Demon Hunters” surpassed 540 million views and remained in the top tier of Netflix’s film rankings for 31 consecutive weeks. According to Nielsen, a U.S.-based streaming viewing tracking agency, it stayed in the top 10 for 26 consecutive weeks.

This success went beyond mere adaptation into a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. Produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment, the animated film has won multiple awards at international film festivals and music ceremonies. Its official theme song, “Golden,” is considered a strong contender for an Oscar at the 2026 Academy Awards and has already received the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Original Song. It also earned the award for Best Original Song at the American Cinema Teche Art Honors ceremony.

EJAE, the singer and producer who composed “Golden,” received nominations in five categories at the 68th Grammy Awards. With “Golden,” he is nominated for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Song in Visual Media, and Best Remixed Recording—four categories in total—alongside “Audrey Nuna” and “REI AMI” for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album. EJAE revealed that he once dreamed of becoming a K-pop idol but gave up that dream in his mid-20s to focus on production, stating that a past breakup served as the direct inspiration for creating “Golden.”

Released on July 4, 2025, “Golden” immediately topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global (Excl. U.S.) charts. It also achieved complete dominance at all major music charts in South Korea. This is the first time a song by a fictional girl group has reached such heights.

Industry analysts note that the success of “KPop Demon Hunters” has significantly heightened global interest in Korean culture as a whole, going far beyond being just a simple entertainment trend.