After a week of corporate turmoil at Netflix, Ted Sarandos traveled to Seoul over the weekend to celebrate one of the streamer’s most obvious success stories of the last decade: its big bet on Korean entertainment.
The Netflix co-CEO attended the company’s massive two-day fan event held at the Sangam Oil Tank Culture Park, a former petroleum storage depot converted into a cultural complex in western Seoul. The visit came just days after Netflix replaced chief content officer Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice and announced layoffs affecting nearly 1,000 employees — but the mood in Korea was thoroughly celebratory.
The festival, titled “Netflix Checkout”, attracted over 10,000 local fans with themed activity booths, interactive games, company merchandise, live music, and appearances by stars of Netflix’s most famous Korean titles. The online broadcast of the event received an additional 3.58 million cumulative views.
Sarandos took the stage Saturday to share his appreciation for the Korean creative community and personally previewed Netflix’s upcoming slate, including an Oscar contender from local filmmaking legend Lee Chang-dong. possible loveupcoming k-drama tartar And including the much awaited series Grand Galaxy Hotel, she Wolf, we are all dead Season 2 and live-action adaptation of the anime event solo leveling.
“Ten years ago, we dreamed big, but none of us imagined that Korean stories would touch hearts around the world and become the center of global culture,” Sarandos said. “For Netflix, Korea is more than a market. It’s where we discovered new possibilities, and where we learned how far a story can travel. And it’s one of our most treasured partners for the future we’re building together.”
Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Park Hae-soo.
To further commemorate the occasion, Netflix released a number of data from its service showing how bankable Korean content has become. According to the streamer, Korean programming is now its most watched non-English-language content category, with more than 80 percent of Netflix members worldwide having watched at least one Korean title. Since the company began tracking its global top 10 rankings in June 2021, more than 200 Korean titles have appeared on the chart.
three seasons of squid game occupying the top three spots on Netflix’s most-watched non-English television list of all time, while this year’s Korean hits teach you a lesson Recently joined the ranking at number 10. Korean productions drove more than 12 billion hours of viewing on Netflix between April 2025 and March 2026 – second only to US content by country of origin.
Korean stars came out to support Netflix’s first decade milestone. squid game Favorites Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun and Park Hae-soo took the stage to remind of the show’s unprecedented global success, while kpop demon hunter The Voice star Ahn Hyo-seop stepped into the spotlight for a moment DP Stars Koo Kyo-hwan and Jang Hye-in. The event also featured cast members from Netflix hits hell Bound, masked girl, Cooking Class War And Trauma Code: Heroes on Callamong others.
Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong.
The preview of the company’s upcoming Korean slate brought another wave of shiny K-content favorites. Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong appeared in support of Lee Chang-dong possible lovewhich won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize in Venice and is set to debut globally on Netflix on November 6. and introduced by Song Hye-kyo, Gong Yoo and Kim Seol-hyun tartarIt is a period drama based on the Korean entertainment industry from the 1960s to 1980s, which will premiere on December 11.
Other upcoming projects highlighted by Sarandos include the supernatural fantasy Grand Galaxy HotelStarring Lee Do-hyun and Shin Si-ae; she WolfWith Kim Min-joo, Loman and Moon Sang-min; And the second season of Netflix’s zombie blockbuster we are all deadWhose cast members Park Ji-hoo, Yoon Chan-young, Cho Yi-hyun and Loman were present. Rising Korean lead Byeon Woo-seok also appears to make his highly anticipated live-action debut solo levelingin which he plays the protagonist Sung Jin-woo (release dates for those four titles have not been announced yet).
While a creative rethink is underway at the world’s largest streamer, the Seoul anniversary celebration demonstrated that at least one tenet of Netflix’s global content strategy is unlikely to change: the centrality of Korean entertainment.