Picture: Netflix
KPop Demon Hunters may have topped the theatrical box office this weekend, but they’ve more importantly gone one step further and topped the all-time Netflix charts, unseating Red Notice after four years. After 10 weeks, the movie has now clocked up 236 million views with weeks to go!
To clarify its achievement, KPop Demon Hunters has unseated Red Notice from the top spot on Netflix’s most-watched chart, which is ranked by the largest number of views within the first 91 days of release. The numbers we’ve got so far are for the first 66 days, meaning that KPop Demon Hunters still has 25 days to go to grab as much viewership as possible.
Here’s the big graph that we’ve been touting through our Top 10 Reports over the past few weeks
Here’s the breakdown of viewership from week-to-week:
| Week in Top 10 | Week Period | Hours Watched | Views / CVE | Weekly Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jun 15 to Jun 22, 2025 | 15,400,000 | 9,200,000 | 2 |
| 2 | Jun 22 to Jun 29, 2025 | 40,300,000 (+162%) | 24,200,000 | 1 |
| 3 | Jun 29 to Jul 6, 2025 | 37,800,000 (-6%) | 22,700,000 | 2 |
| 4 | Jul 6 to Jul 13, 2025 | 40,400,000 (+7%) | 24,200,000 | 1 |
| 5 | Jul 13 to Jul 20, 2025 | 43,000,000 (+6%) | 25,800,000 | 1 |
| 6 | Jul 20 to Jul 27, 2025 | 43,900,000 (+2%) | 26,300,000 | 2 |
| 7 | Jul 27 to Aug 3, 2025 | 43,800,000 (-0%) | 26,300,000 | 2 |
| 8 | Aug 3 to Aug 10, 2025 | 43,100,000 (-2%) | 25,900,000 | 2 |
| 9 | Aug 10 to Aug 17, 2025 | 43,300,000 (+0%) | 26,000,000 | 1 |
| 10 | Aug 17 to Aug 24, 2025 | 42,400,000 (-2%) | 25,400,000 | 1 |
The only caveat and mild criticism of Netflix’s viewership numbers for the movie is that it doesn’t take unique viewers into account. As we’ve seen with Nielsen ratings and Netflix ratings over the years, kids’ titles tend to remain extremely consistent in the top 10, with a significant portion of that viewing coming from kids watching titles repeatedly (see movies like Moana and series like CoComelon and Ms. Rachel). When you’re measuring in viewing hours or minutes, like most providers do, it doesn’t take unique viewers into account. Of course, that’s nitpicking, but worth noting. It’d be super interesting to know how well KPop Demon Hunters did on Netflix’s old viewership metric.
Where is the ceiling and eventual ending point for KPop Demon Hunters? Here’s a look at our predictions:
| Scenario | Projected Views |
|---|---|
| Cumulative (Week 10) | 236.0M |
| 0% Weekly Decline | 312.2M |
| 5% Weekly Decline | 304.8M |
| 20% Weekly Decline | 285.6M |
| 30% Weekly Decline | 274.9M |
| Tapered Decay | 295.3M |
Other Data Providers Back Up KPop Demon Hunters Is A Monster Hit
It’s not just Netflix numbers that are proving strong for KPop Demon Hunters; we’ve been seeing from Luminate and Nielsen that the movie is tracking well, too.
According to Luminate, the film’s viral momentum has fueled record-breaking streaming numbers, with its soundtrack accounting for nearly half of U.S. K-pop streams. However, its dominance hasn’t necessarily translated into broader discovery of other K-pop acts. Still, the timing of its release, amid a wave of high-profile comebacks from BLACKPINK, BTS, and other mainstays, coupled with the genre’s famously devoted fan base, has made KPDH a perfect storm for cultural impact. With a theatrical run and sequels on the way, the demon-slaying girl group at its heart seems set to stand alongside the biggest names in K-pop for the foreseeable future.
Nielsen charts are equally impressive, with the movie still not having topped out according to their data as of July 27th. From its opening week to the latest available data, the movie has been watched for 3,724 million minutes in the United States.
| Nielsen Week | Movie Rank # | Minutes Viewed (M) |
|---|---|---|
| 06/16 – 06/22 | 8 | 250 |
| 06/23 – 06/29 | 1 | 778 |
| 06/30 – 07/06 | 3 | 720 |
| 07/14 – 07/20 | 1 | 949 |
| 07/21 – 07/27 | 2 | 1027 |
The movie is also a truly global hit, though. According to FlixPatrol, the movie has appeared in the daily top 10 for all 90 regions for 67 consecutive days. It has averaged 8.3 points per day, which equates to an average position of 2.7 in the daily top 10 charts. Truly incredible.
Much of the press has spent the last few weeks dissecting what exactly makes this movie in particular tick, and the truth is, it’s not one singular reason. There’s a bunch of great theories, and I’ve even got a few of my own, so let’s go through them (forgive me for some being horribly obvious):
- It’s all about the music: We’ve seen before that animated titles that can dominate the Netflix top 10s (back when Disney had its first window deal with Netflix) and on rankings on other providers – good music in an animated movie can be rewatched over and over (see Moana). HUNTR/X’s single “Golden” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the soundtrack itself climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
- Social media: The movie definitely grew thanks to social media and sharing on all platforms, but as we’ve covered previously, TikTok has a special role to play in all of Netflix’s biggest hits, and that was certainly the case here. The movie performed well on the platform globally, and according to the interest meter gauge provided by TikTok for the hashtag # kpopdemonhunters, interest peaked between June 29th and July 5th, but has held on much stronger than other Netflix titles.
TikTok Interest Meter for #kpopdemonhunters Hashtag
- Perfect cultural and school holiday timing: Released during a major wave of K-pop activity, which has been growing for years anyway. 2025 also included BLACKPINK’s world tour and BTS’s comeback announcement, so that’s no doubt played a role. Furthermore, releasing as the school holidays kicked off allowed for weeks of bingeing as kids were not at school.
- Strong representation of female fandom: With the majority of U.S. K-pop listeners being women, a girl group at the center of the film resonated deeply.
- It’s a damn good and addictive movie! Finally, unlike many movies on the all-time Netflix top 10 list, this movie didn’t divide critics or audiences; everyone agrees it’s a kinetic and deeply enjoyable movie.
Much like other Netflix mega-hits, executives, marketing, and PR teams may sense when a title is likely to perform well, but success is often beyond their control, and that was certainly the case here. The movie was almost absent from Netflix’s broad Annecy Film Festival lineup, where most of the attention went to In Your Dreams, due out later this year. There was some marketing ahead of the release, of course, but it was far from the full-scale push reserved for the titles Netflix expects to be its biggest swings of the year.
The new Sing-Along version dropped on Netflix yesterday, following its limited return to theaters, and managed to climb the charts pretty quickly, with it appearing in the number 3 spot in the US behind Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, of course, the main version of KPop Demon Hunters. It’s number 8 globally. The new Singalong version won’t count towards the viewership numbers of the main and will be counted seperately next week.
What’s next for KPop Demon Hunters? Our understanding, based on reporting, is that active negotiations are underway for sequels and a potential animated short to help bridge the gap between now and the eventual sequel release, which will probably be sometime in the late 2020s (think 2027-2029). Until then, expect Netflix to integrate the IP into all of its other efforts, such as the Netflix House announced yesterday, as well as numerous merchandise releases and collaborations.
You can dive into all the numbers we have for KPop Demon Hunters using our top 10 search tool and keep an eye out for our top 10 report covering all the other major headlines for the week ending August 24th in due course.
