It’s Okay to Not be Okay, The King: Eternal Monarch, and Kingdom Top Most Popular Netflix K-dramas Watched in Asia in 2020

Streaming platform Netflix issued a press release (What Asia Watched) last week sharing internal data about it’s streaming numbers with the public. Focusing on the Asia region and on K-dramas, the three K-dramas with the most viewers in 2020 were It’s Okay to Not be Okay, The King: Eternal Monarch, and Kingdom. Totally in line with that got a lot of international buzz, and it nicely cut across three different genres which bodes well for audience retention as it shows K-dramas can be diverse and have different products to suit differing tastes.

“In South-east Asia, K-Drama dominated the Top 10 lists. It’s Okay to Not Be Okay stayed in the top 10 list for over 100 days in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The competition came from some more K-drama titles such as The King: Eternal MonarchItaewon Class, Hi Bye, Mama, Record of Youth, and Mystic Pop-Up Bar, as well as popular Hollywood titles such as Money Heist, Snowpiercer and Sex Education.”

Most popular K-dramas across Asia in 2020:

South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand: Kingdom Season 2

India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore: The King: Eternal Monarch

Indonesia: Start-Up

Taiwan: It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

Japan: What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim


Comments

It’s Okay to Not be Okay, The King: Eternal Monarch, and Kingdom Top Most Popular Netflix K-dramas Watched in Asia in 2020 — 28 Comments

  1. I hear these dramas (along with others) also made it onto the Forbes list of 2020 best K-dramas. Congrats. Here’s hoping next year brings us even better dramas.

    P.S: I’m really loving Queen Cheorin so far. SHS is an absolute delight to watch. She kills it in every scene. What a goddess! I’ve never seen Choi Jin hyuk in a role like this. He’s usually stoic. But I really enjoyed his scenes here. Plus he’s hot! Haha.

  2. Canada, US and Australia goes to The King eternal monarch and Kingdon. I would actully lean towards The King Eternal monarch followed by Kingdom S2 as biggest netflix then It’s okay is third

    • Yes. These western markets have been added saw it on Deadline, Variety and forbes. The King: Eternal Monarch truly scored big in these major markets followed by The Kingdom S2 and it did actully pretty well and I personally thought IONTBO would atleast do better Kingdom S2 but it didn’t but it did well for a third position claiming Taiwan

  3. Record of Youth?? Seriously? But then if people managed to watch The King…. well, it’s really a testament to Park Bogum’s (and Park So-Dam’s, though her role in any if her movies >>>>>) popularity.

  4. So in the italicized part it says IOTNBO stayed in the top 10 list for over 100 days in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Then in those countries they put TKEM. And IOTNBO for Taiwan. Which is which? Cos I’ve seen some TKEM fans on Twitter bragging that it’s the most watched/popular K-drama on Netflix.

  5. I’m going to be that person and ask where’s Crashing Landing On You and Itaewon Class? CLOY has been on Netfflix Japan’s Top 10 since Flixpatrol started tracking in April, that’s almost 8 months and it’s not the most watched in Japan?

    • Thay actually surprised me.. Genuine question though…CLOY has been in Japan’s top 10 ever since it released in February..
      Even in Philippines it continued to be in top 10 untill June..and same for some other Asian countries.. Infact CLOY topped the google search of many countries this year ..
      No doubt the mentioned dramas like Kingdom S2, IOTNBO, King are definitely popular internationally, they deserve to be here. But even dramas like Hi Bye Mama, Mystic pop up bar and the recently concluded Start up made it to the list..and no mention of CLOY, not even in Japan??..???
      Does it have to do with CLOY being added to Netflix in 2019??..cause I remember it featured in Netflix Korea most loved tv shows back in 2019 despite being 2 weeks old..
      Anyways it got its recognition..and i m happy for these other dramas..Hope Netflix keeps producing amazing kdramas next year as well.

      • Wait but when was Secretery kim added to Netflix??..It is an old drama ryt..
        Aaah i must be wrong then about NF involving only 2020 dramas..

  6. @bbc yup..i had the same thought too..CLOY literally ruled Philippines and was in Top 10 until around May-June..Same with some other asian countries..As for Japan, i don’t think i need to say anything because the media has been going crazy over it and ever since it was released there in Feb , it hasn’t left top 10 until today..it is like 10 months.

    The latest google trends also showed CLOY topping in many asian countries.. However even Hi Bye Mama, Mystic pop up bar etc and the recently concluded Start Up were mentioned here but nothing abt CLOY??..I thought it could be due to CLOY being started in 2019 where it already got featured in Netflix 2019 list.. But wait when was Secretary kim added to Netflix??..Idk ..i m confused ?

    Lmao!! Anyways all these dramas were huge hits internationally and deserve recognition…

  7. I think there is a misinterpretation of data, they did not specify the top 3, they simply listed the dramas that were constantly in the top 10 of each country. Correct me if I’m wrong.

  8. Good for these dramas but if what @Nano said is true, can someone tell me how the hell CLOY was not mentioned for Japan..?? I m not even including other Asian countries .
    It is the CLOY erasure that left me in giggles…
    Like since February, CLOY has been in Japan Netflix top 10.. It has been almost 10 months..So yup..where is CLOY???? Maybe Japan got afraid of Kim Jong Un..??

    • After consistently slamming Flixpatrol data as incorrect/inaccurate, Netflix themselves have released their data and you’re still bitter because Almighty CLOY is not on the list. Like Lilo wrote below, its possible Netflix views CLOY as a 2019 drama so they didn’t add it to the 2020 list while WWWSK might possibly be there because it might have been added to Netflix this year. It might not make sense but nothing can be done. CLOY not being here is not the end of the world and doesn’t take away from its massive achievements.

      • Why are you getting riled up?? i just asked a legitimate question..As for Flixpatrol you can go to their site where they clarified that some tv shows didn’t feature in their rankings because they were aired before top 10 was introduced..

        Isn’t it surprising that none of the lists mentioned CLOY ?? I know it is not end of the world as it got it’s recognition already…but yupp.. curiosity .

  9. Since people here were talking about exclusion of CLOY, I went to Flixpatrol just to check in which Asian countries it was in top 10 for over 100 days .

    Japan -264 days.
    TW-153
    Hong Kong-134
    Malaysia-133
    Vietnam-112
    Philippines-102.

    Now, we know Flixpatrol has data from April Onwards.. Thus starting from Dec 2019, add 4 more months to CLOY’s data..The result would be humongous…
    New dramas like Start Up(max 58 days inside top 10), ROY( max 75days) etc.. still managed to feature here..
    So yup i m kind of confused too..

  10. I mean i dont understand this data cloy was really popular in japan at least i mean if any park seo joon drama should top in japan it should be itaewon class. I just find it weird that cloy is not on anylist i would have said it was because it aired first in 2019 but secretary kim is on the list so i dont really understand. But tkem iontbo were really popular internationally that for sure

  11. So does most popular title actually mean most watched because something are questionable like cloy not being on the list at all especially in JAPAN

  12. As a Malaysian, I am so ashamed that TKEM topped the list of most watched K-drama.

    Kinda surprised over the results since literally no one ever talked about TKEM on social media platforms in Malaysia during TKEM’s run or after.

    Very much unlike CLOY where even Malaysian celebs posted and talked about it.

    Weird much.

    • This netflix data are for drama released in 2020, cloy released in 2019 hence its not included on the list. Secretary kim got in maybe because it released officialy on netflix this year.

  13. I also read that in netflix’s end-of-year list news was the movie #alive, I think it was in the top 10 most viewed foreign films, but I don’t know if it was from the USA or the world, I’m very happy for Yoo Ah In, the movie was not a marvel in libretto but the acting made up for it, it also came at a time when many of us were locked up and somewhat lonely.

  14. adding to the list, TKEM also on the top K-drama list in Netflix US, Canada, and Australia along with Kingdom.
    Now that’s some of biggest countries with many Netflix subscribers.

  15. I am confused about the Netflix Japan results as this report shows a different story:

    https://note.com/netflix/n/na2da9b5f2062

    Based on this report which seems to be from Netflix Japan, CLOY actually ranked #1 in Netflix Japan most popular works, across ALL genre. Itaewon Class was #2. And the #3 place is a Japanese show.

    Top 10 Most Popular Movies in Japan in 2020
    The blockbuster Korean drama “Emergency Landing of Love” took first place.

    1. “Love’s Emergency Landing
    2. “Itaewon Class
    3. “Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020
    4. “Hi-Q!
    5. “Firefighters on Fire
    6. psycho but okay
    7. “ARASHI’s Diary -Voyage
    8. “Seishun no kioku
    9. “Why the hell is Secretary Kim?
    10. “I don’t want to be in pain, so I’m going to focus on defense.
    (above is auto translateed)

    Maybe the earlier report was not accurate or the author sorted the data wrongly?

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