Today I learned that Lupin is getting a fourth season, and it’s already in production. This came as a surprise, because I thought the third season pretty much put a bow on the whole plot, but hey — who am I to tell Omar Sy he can’t put on silly little fake mustaches anymore? Or really, who am I to tell Netflix they shouldn’t revive one of their biggest hits, because it turns out that’s exactly what Lupin is. I checked Netflix’s global all-time Top 10 shows ranking, and Lupin: Part 1 is ranked 4th on the non-English list. It likely comes as no surprise that the top two spots on the list are held by Squid Game: Season 1 and Squid Game: Season 2, with Money Heist: Part 4 holding 3rd place.
Of course, that’s the non-English language ranking, and Netflix has a separate Top Ten list for the English language originals. Luckily, they offer the total number of views for each title, so I decided to compile a master list to see where things really stand. Here, then, is Netflix’s Top Ten Show of All Time, Globally, in any language:
1) Squid Game: Season 1 265,200,000 views
2) Wednesday 252,100,000 views
3) Squid Game: Season 2 192,600,000 views
4) Adolescence 142,600,000 views
5) Stranger Things 4 140,700,000 views
6) DAHMER: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story 115,600,000 views
7) Bridgerton: Season 1 113,300,000 views
8) The Queen’s Gambit 112,800,000 views
9) Bridgerton: Season 3 / Money Heist: Part 4 106,000,000 views
10) Lupin: Part 1 99,500,000 views
The biggest takeaway? Squid Game is absolutely Netflix’s biggest show of all time. In fact, Squid Game: Season 3 is already sitting in 9th place on the non-English list with over 60 million views, and it’s only been out for a week and a half. I’m happy Lupin managed to stay on the combined list, and I’ll admit I ranked the tie between Bridgerton: Season 3 and Money Heist: Part 4 together just make room for Lupin, but you can bet in another few weeks it’ll fall off as Squid Game: Season 3 climbs the chart… and probably lands towards the top.
Still, Wednesday proves to be surprisingly stiff competition. Will the upcoming second season crack that top three? I wonder. Bridgerton is also going strong, with two seasons on the list and more on the way, so that’s been a solid investment for Netflix. I was a little surprised to see Stranger Things isn’t as dominant as I’d assumed, with only one season cracking this Top 10. Stranger Things 3 holds 10th place on the English language list, but fell off when I combined them, alongside The Night Agent and Fool Me Once — though all three shows had more views than the bottom half of the non-English list, proving that English language shows tend to perform better overall.
On the non-English list, it’s all seasons of Squid Game, Money Heist, and Lupin with the exception of two shows: La Palma and Who Killed Sara?. You know what’s not there? Dark. That broke my heart a little bit, but I do think there’s an unavoidable recency bias to this sort of ranking simply because Netflix has more subscribers now than it did in (gulp) 2017. That’s why the vanguard of the Netflix Originals, shows like House of Cards or Orange is the New Black, have long since been replaced by things like the excessively-coloned DAHMER: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. I lose 27 brain cells every time I type that title out.
You know what’s not on any of the Top 10 lists of all time? A single cartoon. Somehow, we’ve all let Dustin win.
