Pictures via various distributors – Illustration by What’s on Netflix
2024 is in the books, and it was an incredibly busy year for K-dramas on Netflix. Close to 50 new Korean dramas landed on Netflix US alone, but what was the most watched globally? Below is another Netflix stats deep-dive where we’ll look into which K-dramas picked up the most points in the top 10s and which ones scored the most views in the global top 10s in the first few weeks of release.
This is just the latest most popular list we’ve published here at What’s on Netflix. We’ve already covered the most popular anime series and movies, documentaries and docu-series, and the most popular kids titles, too. If you’re looking for what was the most watched throughout 2024, you can find our massive deep-dive into Netflix’s figures here.
Unlike those other lists, we wanted to delve a little deeper into this article and cover what was most popular and most watched, as the results give us two separate outcomes…
Most Popular K-Drama Series on Netflix Top 10s in 2024
As with the other lists, this is compiled using FlixPatrol top 10 data. Every day, they grab the top 10 movies, series, and kids’ titles and assign points to each show or movie featured. This list then compiles all those points from January 1st through December 31st to see which shows and films had the most staying power in the top 10s.
Thanks to its weekly release drop, Queen of Tears earned the most points in the top 10 in 2024. It also gained momentum constantly throughout its run, which is rare for a show to do. That’s the theme of the top 10 list in general here. Weekly K-dramas on Netflix give you an edge because you’re able to consistently pick up points throughout your run, although, as we’ll come onto, it doesn’t necessarily translate into views.
With Squid Game breaking Netflix records, you may be wondering why it’s not more popular and is higher up on this list. Well, there are a couple of factors, but as stated above, the longer you have to accrue points in FlixPatrol’s list, the better. Because the series only released on December 26th, it only had five days to pick up points. Considering that, it’s a good showing even to be 14th.
- Queen of Tears (21,344 points)
- Love Next Door (18,242 points)
- When the Phone Rings (15,282 points)
- Miss Night and Day (14,124 points)
- Doctor Slump (13,570 points)
- Parasyte: The Grey (10,157 points)
- Hierarchy (9,328 points)
- The Atypical Family (9,186 points)
- My Demon (7,395 points)
- Physical: 100 (7,358 points)
- Romance in the House (7,285 points)
- The 8 Show (6,972 points)
- Gyeongseong Creature (6,800 points)
- Squid Game (5,285 points)
- Culinary Class Wars (4,935 points)
- True Beauty (4,368 points)
- A Killer Paradox (4,138 points)
- Mr. Plankton (3,874 points)
- A Virtuous Business (3,798 points)
- Welcome to Samdal-ri (3,756 points)
- The Frog (3,560 points)
- The Trunk (3,519 points)
- Sweet Home (3,465 points)
- Captivating the King (3,295 points)
- Bequeathed (2,143 points)
- Lovely Runner (1,734 points)
- Goodbye Earth (1,564 points)
- The Tale of Lady Ok (1,492 points)
- Hellbound (1,359 points)
- EVE (1,218 points)
- Doubt (1,208 points)
- Single’s Inferno (1,076 points)
- Frankly Speaking (979 points)
- The Whirlwind (971 points)
- Eye Love You (756 points)
- Good Partner (656 points)
- Chicken Nugget (631 points)
- BITCH X RICH (628 points)
- Super Rich in Korea (619 points)
- The Influencer (548 points)
- Check in Hanyang (524 points)
- Love After Divorce (514 points)
- Marry You (381 points)
- Family by Choice (342 points)
- I Am Solo (321 points)
- Agents of Mystery (317 points)
- A Clean Sweep (295 points)
- Parole Examiner Lee (291 points)
- Beauty and Mr. Romantic (269 points)
- My Happy Ending (269 points)
Most Watched K-Drama Series in 2024
Picture: Netflix
If we stack the top 20 most popular titles up into how well they performed in the Netflix global top 10s in terms of views for the first two weeks, here’s how they sit. As you’ll quickly see, it’s Squid Game season 2 and everything else… Interestingly, weekly episode rollout plays a major role here too because, for example, Queen of Tears didn’t really start performing well until weeks 3 and 4, so it looks more impressive in the above list than in the chart below (it featured in the global top 10s for 15 weeks in total).
You can dig through the first four weeks performance of each of those titles using the tables below:
Opening Week
Rows are faded out if the title had dropped out of the top 10s by this week. Titles that failed to feature in the top 10 are marked as such.
| Rank | Title | Cumulative Views (Last 1 Weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Squid Game - Season 2 | 68,000,000 |
| 2 | Parasyte: The Grey | 6,300,000 |
| 3 | Physical: 100 - Season 2 | 6,100,000 |
| 4 | Culinary Class Wars | 3,800,000 |
| 5 | Hierarchy | 3,500,000 |
| 6 | When the Phone Rings | 3,300,000 |
| 7 | Mr. Plankton | 3,200,000 |
| 8 | Gyeongseong Creature - Season 2 | 3,100,000 |
| 9 | A Killer Paradox | 3,100,000 |
| 10 | My Demon | 3,000,000 |
| 11 | The Atypical Family | 2,000,000 |
| 12 | Miss Night and Day | 1,800,000 |
| 13 | The 8 Show | 1,700,000 |
| 14 | A Virtuous Business | 1,600,000 |
| 15 | Doctor Slump | 1,400,000 |
| 16 | Romance in the House | 1,200,000 |
| 17 | Queen of Tears | 1,200,000 |
| 18 | Love Next Door | 1,100,000 |
| 19 | True Beauty * | Failed to feature |
Week 2
Rows are faded out if the title had dropped out of the top 10s by this week. Titles that failed to feature in the top 10 are marked as such.
| Rank | Title | Cumulative Views (Last 2 Weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Squid Game - Season 2 | 126,200,000 |
| 2 | Parasyte: The Grey | 16,100,000 |
| 3 | Physical: 100 - Season 2 | 10,300,000 |
| 4 | When the Phone Rings | 9,900,000 |
| 5 | Hierarchy | 9,800,000 |
| 6 | Culinary Class Wars | 8,700,000 |
| 7 | A Killer Paradox | 8,600,000 |
| 8 | My Demon | 8,400,000 |
| 9 | Gyeongseong Creature - Season 2 | 6,800,000 |
| 10 | The 8 Show | 6,500,000 |
| 11 | Mr. Plankton | 5,300,000 |
| 12 | Queen of Tears | 4,600,000 |
| 13 | Doctor Slump | 4,300,000 |
| 14 | Love Next Door | 4,100,000 |
| 15 | Romance in the House | 3,800,000 |
| 16 | Miss Night and Day | 3,500,000 |
| 17 | The Atypical Family | 3,500,000 |
| 18 | A Virtuous Business | 2,800,000 |
| 19 | True Beauty * | Failed to feature |
Week 3
Rows are faded out if the title had dropped out of the top 10s by this week. Titles that failed to feature in the top 10 are marked as such.
| Rank | Title | Cumulative Views (Last 3 Weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Squid Game - Season 2 | 152,500,000 |
| 2 | Parasyte: The Grey | 20,000,000 |
| 3 | When the Phone Rings | 14,200,000 |
| 4 | My Demon | 13,300,000 |
| 5 | Physical: 100 - Season 2 | 13,000,000 |
| 6 | Culinary Class Wars | 12,700,000 |
| 7 | Hierarchy | 12,300,000 |
| 8 | A Killer Paradox | 10,800,000 |
| 9 | The 8 Show | 9,300,000 |
| 10 | Queen of Tears | 8,800,000 |
| 11 | Gyeongseong Creature - Season 2 | 8,300,000 |
| 12 | Love Next Door | 7,800,000 |
| 13 | Doctor Slump | 6,500,000 |
| 14 | Romance in the House | 5,600,000 |
| 15 | Mr. Plankton * |
5,300,000 (Dropped out after 2 weeks) |
| 16 | Miss Night and Day | 5,200,000 |
| 17 | The Atypical Family | 5,100,000 |
| 18 | A Virtuous Business | 4,200,000 |
| 19 | True Beauty | 3,200,000 |
Week 4
Rows are faded out if the title had dropped out of the top 10s by this week. Titles that failed to feature in the top 10 are marked as such.
| Rank | Title | Cumulative Views (Last 4 Weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Squid Game - Season 2 * |
152,500,000 (More data to come...) |
| 2 | Parasyte: The Grey | 21,800,000 |
| 3 | When the Phone Rings | 18,600,000 |
| 4 | My Demon | 17,500,000 |
| 5 | Culinary Class Wars | 15,800,000 |
| 6 | Hierarchy | 13,600,000 |
| 7 | Queen of Tears | 13,100,000 |
| 8 | Physical: 100 - Season 2 * |
13,000,000 (Dropped out after 3 weeks) |
| 9 | A Killer Paradox | 11,900,000 |
| 10 | Love Next Door | 11,800,000 |
| 11 | The 8 Show | 10,800,000 |
| 12 | Gyeongseong Creature - Season 2 | 9,100,000 |
| 13 | Doctor Slump | 8,300,000 |
| 14 | The Atypical Family | 7,200,000 |
| 15 | Miss Night and Day | 7,100,000 |
| 16 | Romance in the House | 7,100,000 |
| 17 | True Beauty | 5,600,000 |
| 18 | Mr. Plankton * |
5,300,000 (Dropped out after 2 weeks) |
| 19 | A Virtuous Business * |
4,200,000 (Dropped out after 3 weeks) |
What was your favorite new K-drama series on Netflix in 2024? Let us know in the comments.
