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‘Squid Game’ finale debuts at No. 1 globally with mixed reviews

June 30, 2025

The final season of “Squid Game” has made an excellent global debut, immediately capturing the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s worldwide chart, a U.S. streaming analytics site showed Monday.

According to FlixPatrol’s data from Sunday (local time), the concluding chapter of the hit Korean survival drama ranked first in all 93 countries tracked by the site.

This early data indicates a massive launch for the series, which released its final episodes Friday, bringing the gripping saga that began in 2021 to a close.

Gi-hun (L) and the Front Man are featured in this poster provided by Netflix. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Gi-hun (L) and the Front Man are featured in this poster provided by Netflix. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

While it continued its phenomenal popularity, the finale has been met with mixed reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the season received a strong 83 percent approval rating from critics. In contrast, the audience-based “Popcorn Meter” sits at a mixed 51 percent.

Liz Shannon Miller, a top critic cited by the site, praised the show’s unyielding tone, writing, “The world just keeps getting darker and darker, it seems, and ‘Squid Game’ has remarkably managed to keep pace with it just by being its own cruel self.”

Audiences, however, were less convinced.

“This season felt dull and overly predictable,” one viewer’s review read. “Aside from a few standout scenes, most of it failed to hold my interest.”

Netflix will release its official weekly rankings Wednesday, which will provide a complete picture of the finale’s viewership.