The Netflix series Lucifer and Squid Game battled it out for the highest streaming numbers of 2021 in the U.S., but the former show ended up with the #1 slot. The Korean survival series Squid Game, which followed a group of down-on-their-luck people competing in deadly children's games for a cash prize, was the surprise hit of the year. It was such a popular series that during Halloween, people who wanted to dress as Squid Game contestants (who wore green tracksuits and white sneakers) caused a 7,800% spike in sales for Vans white slip-ons.
Lucifer has been around for much longer, and indeed just ended its run last year. The DC Comics-derived series began airing in 2016 on Fox, but the network canceled the program after season 3, whereupon Netflix picked it up and produced three more seasons. Lucifer stars Tom Ellis as the title character, the lord of Hell, who decides to abandon his post and open a Los Angeles nightclub and become an LAPD consultant. Although the show is now over, the character of Lucifer will be re-adapted in Netflix's upcoming Sandman series, played by Gwendoline Christie.
Deadline has just reported the Nielsen survey results for U.S. streaming viewership throughout 2021. Lucifer topped the original series chart with a staggering 18.3 billion minutes streamed. Squid Game gave it a run for its money, trailing just slightly behind at 16.4 billion minutes. The rest of the original series chart was filled out by the dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale, the feel-good Jason Sudeikis series Ted Lasso, and the MCU spinoff series WandaVision.
Proportionally, these numbers still speak volumes about the popularity of Squid Game. These viewership numbers come from every extant episode of the series, not just the ones released in 2021, and the Korean drama only had 9 episodes as opposed to Lucifer's 93. If the count had only included Lucifer's sixth and final season, which premiered in 2021 and only ran for 10 episodes, the numbers would likely have read very differently.
However the numbers are laid out, the success of both Lucifer and Squid Game shows that Netflix is still the dominant service of the streaming era. How long that will remain the case is still up in the air, however. With Netflix increasing their subscription fees and other services rising in the ranks with their original content, they will have to keep nabbing strong numbers to remain as competitive as they have historically been since they first started creating their own content in 2013.
Source: Deadline