The Light and Shadow of a Barrier-Breaking Mega IP... The Warning from "Squid Game" Plunging to a 6.7 Rating [Real-Economy Hallyu]

Dominating the real economy and breaking through the Emmy barrier
But a plausibility-starved narrative sends Rotten Tomatoes scores plunging
"Narrative must be pushed to the extreme from the planning stage"

Still cut from the drama 'Squid Game'

Korean video content has firmly established itself in the mainstream of the global entertainment industry. The Netflix drama series "Squid Game" has clearly demonstrated the explosive power of intellectual property (IP). In Netflix's all-time non-English TV category, Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of the series swept the board, ranking first, second, and third in viewing hours, setting an unprecedented record.

The box-office success spilled beyond the screen into the real economy and the broader cultural industry. A series of collaborations with global food, beverage, and fashion brands proves this. KFC launched a special menu featuring pink burger buns, while Crocs and Johnnie Walker created limited-edition collaboration products, generating massive added value.

The craze that swept the real economy spread into voluntary secondary creations, extending the lifespan of the IP indefinitely. YouTube creator MrBeast's real-life game recreation video and parody sketches on the American comedy show SNL went viral, cementing the series as a unique cultural phenomenon. Overwhelming public support even broke down the traditionally rigid barriers of the entertainment industry. Netflix pledged large-scale investment in Korea, and the traditionally conservative American Emmy Awards granted the series the honor of becoming the first non-English-language winner.

Stills from the drama 'Squid Game'

Behind these dazzling achievements lies a painful downside. As the seasons progressed, viewers' evaluations of the show's artistic quality turned increasingly cold. On the American review site Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score was 85% for Season 1, but then plunged to 64% for Season 2 and 51% for Season 3. The Tomatometer, which reflects critics' assessments, also fell from 95% to 78%. On the global film and TV database IMDb, the average rating dropped from 8.13 to 7.51.

A looser narrative structure and lack of plausibility drove these rating declines. Episodes where the emotional arc and narrative tension remained strong received praise, but installments with severe logical leaps were judged harshly. In particular, the final episode of Season 3, "Humans Are...," which concludes the overarching narrative, received a series-low score of 6.7. Although the protagonist reenters the game, he fails to achieve core goals such as dismantling the forces behind the operation or shutting the game down, betraying viewers' expectations.

"Squid Game" has clearly shown how a dominant IP can shake up the global industrial landscape. At the same time, it has also demonstrated in stark numerical terms that a thin narrative and lack of plausibility directly translate into a loss of viewer trust.

Still cut from the drama 'Squid Game'

An official at the Korea Culture Information Service Agency stated, "We must guard against becoming intoxicated by superficial box-office indicators. If a season fails to secure a sophisticated overarching story structure and philosophical depth, even the largest IP cannot avoid being shunned by viewers." The official went on to stress, "There is a need to apply meticulous production strategies that push narrative completeness to the extreme from the planning stage to all sectors of the content industry."