Korean pop culture, in numbers

Fewer Korean titles chart every year. The places they hold have not fallen

Netflix has announced a larger Korean slate for 2026. On its own charts the number of Korean titles reaching any country top 10 has been falling since 2022, while the number of places they hold has not. So where did the places go: to bigger hits, or away from small ones?

276 titles in 2022 · 203 in 2025 — 26.4% fewer. Places held: 7,303 → 7,423, up 1.6%.

Same shelf, a quarter fewer titles on it

YearTitles that chartedChart places heldPlaces per title
2021 — part year, 26 weeks1694,09124.2
20222767,30326.5
20232737,83728.7
20242276,77529.8
20252037,42336.6
2026 — part year, 30 weeks1424,32130.4

A place is one title, in one country, in one week. A title is counted once per year however many countries or weeks it appears in. Seasons of one show are counted as that show, not separately, so that a change in how Netflix labels seasons cannot move the title count.

Distrust the last column. Places divided by titles rose from 26.5 to 36.6, but that single figure is a quotient of two moving numbers and cannot say which one moved. The columns beside it separate them.

So where did the places go

YearTen biggest titles holdSame, biggest title removedOutside the top ten, per title
202245.4%42.8%15
202339.7%37.6%18
202441.2%40.2%18.4
202557.3%46.6%16.4

A rise in what the ten biggest titles hold could be one very large title rather than a thicker head. The same figure is therefore shown with the single biggest title of each year removed; if it still rises, no one title is carrying it.

With the biggest title in: 11.9 points. With it out: 3.8 points.

And the rest of the field barely moved: a title outside the ten biggest held 15 places in 2022 and 16.4 in 2025.

The concentration is one title

YearBiggest single titleIts share of all Korean chart places
2021 — part yearSquid Game27.3%
2022All of Us Are Dead8.3%
2023The Glory7.6%
2024Queen of Tears6.5%
2025Squid Game24.6%

The biggest title of the year held 8.3% of all Korean chart places in 2022 and 24.6% in 2025.

We do not name a second or a third. One title holding a quarter of a year's places is a fact about the shape of the chart. A list of the ones behind it would be a ranking, and this publication does not print those.

The smallest band moved too: titles that took five chart places or fewer in a whole year fell from 167 to 117. That is 73 fewer titles charting in total, and the places did not follow them out.

How this was counted, and what it cannot say

This counts what reached a top 10, not what was released. A year with fewer charting titles may have had fewer Korean titles released, or the same number with fewer of them charting, and Netflix publishes no release counts by country of origin that would separate those. It also says nothing about viewing: a top 10 is a rank list, and a title just outside it is invisible here.

Did the charts concentrate by company · Why 7.7% is not one place a week · How a title leaves · How we count

What we wrote from this data