A global streaming hit shows the power of international content

The worldwide success of a Korean series this year demonstrated the growing power and appeal of international content on streaming platforms, as a show from outside the traditional centres of English-language entertainment became a global phenomenon, reshaping assumptions about what audiences would watch.

The series, a dark and gripping drama, became an enormous global hit, watched by vast audiences around the world and generating widespread cultural conversation, becoming one of the most successful titles ever to appear on the platform that distributed it.

Its success demonstrated the appetite of global audiences for compelling content regardless of its country of origin or original language, aided by the global reach of streaming platforms and the increasing willingness of audiences to watch subtitled or dubbed programming.

The phenomenon reflected the broader globalisation of entertainment driven by streaming, which had made content from around the world accessible to global audiences and had created opportunities for programming from outside the traditional Hollywood-centred industry to reach enormous audiences.

The success of international content also reflected the strategy of the streaming platforms, which had invested heavily in producing and acquiring programming from around the world, both to serve local markets and to find the next global hit.

The worldwide triumph of the Korean series marked a significant moment in the globalisation of entertainment, demonstrating the power of streaming to turn content from anywhere into a global phenomenon and the growing appetite of audiences for international programming. It underscored the transformation of the entertainment landscape wrought by streaming, which had broken down barriers of geography and language and created a more global and interconnected culture of entertainment, a defining feature of the streaming age.