South Korea Passes U.K. to Become Second Biggest Netflix Content-Creating Country Behind United States
Netflix is the world’s largest streaming service, with over 223 million users across the globe, at last count. With such an expansive global footprint, it should come as no surprise to users that Netflix’s content also comes from many different worldwide sources.
But which country produces the most popular content for Netflix? What’s On Netflix has managed to compile data from the Czech streaming service tracker FlixPatrol to help answer that very question. Using Netflix’s daily top-10 lists from 89 countries around the world, FlixPatrol and What’s On Netflix have come up with a definitive list of which countries are churning out the most beloved Netflix content.
The United States leads by far in terms of which country boasts the most popular Netflix content. Last year, the U.S. produced some record-breaking hits for the service, including “Stranger Things” Volume 4, “Wednesday” and “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” On average, 59.92% of series appearing in the global top-10 lists were from the U.S.
| Position | Country | Annual Average | First Quarter | Second Quarter | Third Quarter | Fourth Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 59.92% | 63.18% | 54.84% | 62.60% | 59.05% |
| 2 | South Korea | 6.63% | 4.49% | 4.57% | 5.47% | 11.98% |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 4.11% | 6.28% | 4.52% | 2.72% | 2.90% |
| 4 | Spain | 3.90% | 2.64% | 5.15% | 4.72% | 3.10% |
| 5 | France | 3.29% | 4.45% | 2.97% | 3.59% | 2.15% |
| 6 | Colombia | 3.04% | 2.29% | 2.54% | 3.83% | 3.51% |
| 7 | Mexico | 2.33% | 1.52% | 5.30% | 0.88% | 1.60% |
| 8 | Japan | 2.30% | 1.46% | 3.14% | 2.58% | 2% |
| 9 | India | 1.59% | 2.12% | 1.08% | 1.31% | 1.84% |
| 10 | Canada | 1.43% | 0.37% | 2.56% | 1.23% | 1.54% |
The second-most-popular source for content from Netflix in 2022 was South Korea. This demonstrates the staying power of series like “Squid Game,” which came to the service in September of 2021. Netflix launched over 25 Korean titles in 2022, and saw a big jump in views during the fourth quarter thanks to its new reality dating series “Single's Inferno.”
Korean content has become an increasingly important cornerstone of content for Netflix. Over 60% of the company’s global users watched at least one Korean series in 2022, and Korean series have cracked top-10 lists in every country where Netflix tracks its top-10 performing shows.
Unfortunately for the U.K., the release of the newest season of “The Crown” on Nov. 9 was not enough to turn its year around. U.K content started 2022 competing with Korean shows for the second-most-popular spot, but by year’s end, series and movies from the U.K. made up only 2.9% of content on Netflix top-10 lists around the globe.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.