High Speed Internet organization ran a poll of the most watched Netflix shows around the world this last July and aggregated the findings to list the top 5 most watched shows on Netflix, and to no surprise two K-dramas made the list. The dystopian show 3% from Brazil takes number 1 as the world Netflix viewers most popular show. Second is the K-drama You From Another Star, with most of the viewers coming from Southeast Asia and a funny aside that it’s not the most watched Netflix show in South Korea which goes to The Walking Dead. Third place has 5 shows tied: 13 Reasons Why, Bones, Breaking Bad, Sense8, and also the second K-drama on the list Boys Over Flowers. Then we have Sherlock and Stranger Things co-sitting in the fourth spot, and finally Pretty Little Liars resides prettily in the fifth spot by itself. Surprising not to be on the list as its available on Netflix is Descendants of the Sun, whereas other super popular shows like Heirs and Goblin are only available on Dramafever and/or Viki so don’t count in this poll.
YFAS is a much better drama than DOTS which is just full of fillers, cheese and catwalks. So, am not sirprised why the overhyped DOTS not making it on the list.
Agree. Dots is full of cheese, and it is quite boring tbh… Surprised that BoF made the list, it is one of the worst versions of Hana Yori Dango.
BoF k-version is no doubt the worst (my fave is still the original Taiwan version because of Jerry Yan and his mosquito voice. Lol) but korean dramas market reached is far superior than other Asian countries. They simply have the appeal which is hard to comprehend. And BoF is much like junk food, bad for the health but severely addictive (though I dropped it very early as I was irritated as hell by Ku Hye Sun’s retarded portrayal of Jan Di).
Hahaha…. Gu Hye Sun is the worst of all ?… Why was she even chosen? Was there no k-actress suitable at that time?
This is not true and probably misleading. The whole narrative premise was centered around a tomboyish and little bit crazy protagnonist girl. The whole manuscript centered around such character who exactly was not into love nor ready for love because she was in another mental state. The directors nor writters were looking for making their girl protagnonist some sort of a cinderalla beauty because it would have ruined the manuscript all together. they even chose how to dress her carefully making her tomboyish and someone who didn’t have love in her mind at all. It was her wild and carefree personality that draw in both Gun Jun-pyo and Ji-hoo and she was even shell shocked that they were into her and she herself didn’t know anything about romance or signs leading into romance. She didn’t know how to pick up the vibes. She was ignorant, tomboyish, and little bit crazy carefree and there was even a time where she karate kicked in the face one of the boys just randomly. Honestly I don’t think anyone could have done that role better then her. It was match made in heaven. once in a life time role and she nailed it
@Jack
Tomboyish, awkward and a little crazy does not equate to behaving like some kind of a mentally retarded person. That was how Ku Hye Sun interpreted the character which is far from charming. She is a lousy actress. She didn’t do justice to the role. Many actually watching the show for the “cinderella” element (obviously that is what the writer intended to sell) and the flower boys.
@Jack – Have you read the manga or watched other versions (e.g. Japanese, Taiwanese) before? I don’t mean to mislead anyone. Everybody’s preference is different. In my opinion, Mao Inoue does the best portrayal of Makino Tsukushi. Your so-called “one in a lifetime role” has been done by many actresses really… LOL…
She was not exactly retarded but borderline crazy and unpredictable at times. This was the whole premise of the character.
Seriously if they re-do that and cast your typical cinderalla beauty or just re-do her into sane then the Drama falls apart and becomes cliche.
That craziness and weirdness made the drama completely unique by it’s own. Not everyone is blessed with good looks in life or sanity. I knew some real life people who were like that borderline crazy and but very entertaining to hang out with basically because always something noteworthy happens while I admit sometimes its good and other times not. It’s just life unaltered at the end of the day
No way! Atleast Dot we learned about military structures and schools and it has some political entities that didn’t completely feel like I was wasting my time on complete nonesense. Maybe like 90% nonesense and 10% new knowledge.
MLFAS was like 97% pure nonesense. Maybe 3% interesting was the psycho chaebol.
Honestly Netflix sucks at picking Korean dramas to stream and I’m surprised the crown is not on the list.
It doesn’t matter if it’s pure nonsense as long as it’s entertaining. I wouldn’t know if DOTS was educational cos I couldn’t get past two episodes, it was boring as heck.
This is clearly a case of different tastes because I thought MLFAS was more of a bore, what with the overdramatic female lead and the obsessed male friend. The interesting parts came a few episodes in with suspense build up from the serial killer. Then it was solved and got boring again.
Actually DOS was boring too don’t give me wrong. I just prefer it over MLFAS because it was educational to me. If you already knew the happenings of the military then I can see why you didn’t see it the same as I did.
I agree. YFAS bore me to hell. Though I watched the complete show but I skipped majority of scenes. On the other hand dots was cheesy but show was fun to watch, specially the earthquake scenario. It went downhill after epi 10 but it was definitely worth a watch. It has good plot, amazing chemistry between leads, bromance and hearts thumping ost. The show had mass appeal one of the reason it was huge hit.
DoTS was cheese fest with mediocre acting
Boys over flowers in this list is predictable and in fact both being in this list is predictable. There is no way DOTS could have compete with them because first they are from different years and second MLFAS and BOF had way more impact and staying power.
BOF was definitely not a surprise. It launched Hallyu wave itself in the heavens and It started a golden era for Korean entertainment by opening new markets and platforms. BOF was a TV-revolution for SK. It broke the ice
This shows the world is going downhill. That’s why the masterpiece like Breaking Bad is competing with likes of MLFTS and BOF for most audience view.
Korean market their low quality dramas extremely well neither there is nothing watchable about most of them. Offcourse there are some exceptions.
???? Ah, you are one of those deluded persons who equate shock effects, gratuitous sex, graphic violence, depressing storylines, and basic anti-heroes as obviously SERIOUS creative works, while anything remotely uplifting, dealing with fulfilling relationships (of any kind – family, friends, as well as lovers), taking responsibility for one’s actions, or not being a criminal douche nor totally unhappy or depressing, MUST just be ‘girly stuff’ or ‘chic flicks’.
Yeah.
Women make up the majority of the world, hate to tell you, and South Korean entertainment companies figured this out (Hollywood still hasn’t). Because of this, their TV shows are so much more adult, in a POSITIVE sense, mature, responsible, and of course full of decent love stories, as well as exploring other relationships. They have excellent production values, wonderful actors, and of course lots of eye candy for WOMEN.
So of course that threatens types like you LOL
I watched Boys over flowers like couple of years ago when I was younger and I can tell you that show is freaking addictive and nostalgia.
For me it had the biggest twist I have ever seen not only in the show but also in myself. I hated and despised the leader of F4 in first couple of episodes to extremely level and then all of sudden he started to grow on me until I extremely loved the character to pieces. I have never had such an emotional twist. It’s an awesome rollarroaster
Never got into it…other dramas are my preference.
Some of you are taking this list WAY too seriously, good lord. People watch Netflix to be ENTERTAINED, they aren’t mostly watching critically acclaimed shows from anywhere.
i definitely choose Sherlock than you from another star or boy before flower.
Your title is misleading. It makes it seem like this are official Netflix numbers when it’s just the results from some random poll. You should probably fix that.
Let’s be real. There’s no way a Kdrama, no matter how popular, would even be able to compete with worldwide hits like “Breaking Bad” or “Sherlock”.
It’s not misleading and it was not a poll rather viewers thru time. These shows have been there also for a long time.
I think they are also most viewed in Hulu Tv and Dramafever. It depends on the audience. 15-21 would rather watch that then Sherlock or Breaking bad. Because they themselves are in school etc etc
Read the first sentence of koala’s post. It says right there “High Speed Internet organisation run a poll…”. A poll is in no way the same as official Netflix numbers.
maybe it all about quantity of the viewer,not quality of that drama.
Most watched netflix k Drama shows..correct..It’s own category.
no matter what people said about BOF, that drama caltaputed LMH status into what he is right now.
No matter how popular dots or goblin, it doesnt have power like old kdrama.
Its not about quality, its about popularity.
I couldnt even finish first epi of bof or star.
I think I misunderstood the contents of the article, even though Netflix should be compared to others, instead of comparing the dramas played on Netflix, if you see from the title of this article. that’s why I’m misunderstood.
so who is the number 1?
Ms Koala had clearly stated the number 1 drama is 3%. This is worldwide Netflix viewer count accumulated together. If you searched further each country has different number 1. For example in SK, their most viewed is The Walking Dead which isn’t a Kdrama so South Koreans themselves aren’t watching their own dramas through Netflix and they don’t need to. I am not surprised these two SK drama are the most watched in E. Asia because they caused a phenomenon there. It funny to see India’s number one is Friends. It really is about the country’s viewers taste.
And the language…English speaking countries don’t watch subtitled dramas on a large viewing scale or percentage.
Out of curiosity, I looked up same list for 2017 and the top five were: 1.Sherlock 2.Friends 3.Narcos 4.House of Cards 5.New Girl. No Kdramas made top five last year, but two made the list in 2018, interesting. Did kdramas just recently become available on Netflix?
It’s not a poll but rather ranking. It’s the shows that has accumulated most viewers around the world and in different regions thru time.
Netflix itself is larger then people realize and reach alot of more audience then North America and Europe. It’s present in Africa, Asia, Latin america etc etc.
This top 5 are the top most viewed tv-series on netflix database period and it’s not a surprise since by population in Philippines, Indonesia etc etc and Asia itself has alot of people.
By the way teenagers would not tune in for Sherlock or breaking bad but rather would watch School dramas like Boys over flowers and it comes with different audience. Lmao at India watching friends wtf mann
I am not surprised by “Descendants of the Sun” not being in the least.Frankly speaking, its impact is grossly exaggerated by the korean media.It was really famous in Asia but the hallyu hype about that drama did not reach all the way to Europe,America or Africa like BOF and MLFTS did.
Out of the three, all were fluff and no substance but to me, there was something about MLFTS that stood out compared to the other two.I find Cheon So Yi(MLFTS) was more entertaining to watch than Jandi(BOF) who was way over the top and Kang Mo Yeon(DOTS) who was meant to be this “strong independent woman” but just came across as annoying, arrogant and cold.I blame the writer and director for this, rather than Song Hye Kyo and Goo Hye Sun’s acting.
None of the male leads did it for me.Kim Soo Hyun’s alien character was too stiff for me.Its the chemistry with Cheon So Yi that saved him from being so boring.Song Joong Ki’s character was too cheesy.He and Song Hye Kyo’s visuals plus cinematography saved them.They gave him too many cringy lines and scenarios.I think Kim Eun Sook tried to recreate what worked in Secret Garden but it didnt hit the mark(except they still got high ratings) because it came across as cringy.Lee Min Ho should be thankful Goo Jun Pyo role came at the time it did.Because if it were like now, those extreme arrogant chaebols only fly in weekend dramas.
He shouldn’t be thankful,he picked the right project at the right time