After A Full Year In Netflix’s Global Top 10, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Keeps Setting Records

A year after its debut, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’s KPop Demon Hunters remains one of the biggest success stories in streaming history.

Netflix marked the Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) film’s first anniversary this week by releasing a slate of new statistics that underscore just how incredible its run has been since its June 20, 2025, premiere. According to the streamer, the film has amassed more than 600 million views over the past 52 weeks, making it the most popular Netflix original title ever (although that title was secured long ago). It reached the platform’s Top 10 in all 93 countries where Netflix publishes rankings and climbed to the No. 1 position in 76 of them. It has yet to drop outside the streamer’s global Top 10 film list.

Oh. And it won the Golden Globe, Annie, and Oscar for best animated feature, among dozens of other prizes.

The one-year Top 10 milestone caps a remarkable streaming year for the film, which shattered Netflix records throughout 2025 and 2026, and doesn’t look likely to stop anytime soon. The film was Netflix’s sixth most-watched feature last week.

Within three months of its original release, KPDH became the most-viewed title in the platform’s history, surpassing both Red Notice and the first season of Squid Game. During its initial 91-day measurement window (the metric Netflix uses to track films’ “releases”), the film generated 325.1 million views, a figure that remains unmatched.

It’s also, despite only getting a single weekend wide release, months after its streaming debut, Netflix’s top-grossing film ever at the box office.

Probably more importantly for Netflix, however, the movie’s success extended far beyond streaming, establishing the franchise as the platform’s first true breakout feature-animation IP. Its soundtrack became a phenomenon, charting multiple tracks and helping turn fictional K-pop groups HUNTR/X and the Saja Boys into global fan favorites. The film was also one of Google’s defining entertainment stories of 2025, finishing as the year’s most-searched movie, placing three songs among Google’s top 10 songs of the year, and ranking as the second-biggest trending search overall.

Netflix says the fandom surrounding the film generated 4.6 billion social impressions. The official lyric video for the breakout song “Golden” accounted for 2.3 billion of those impressions alone. Meanwhile, the company’s KPop Demon Hunters Roblox experience accumulated 11.5 million hours of playtime.

The film’s impact appears to have extended into the real world as well. Netflix cites a 25% increase in flight reservations to South Korea following the movie’s release, while online marketplace Bunjang reported a 78% increase in cross-border purchases of K-pop merchandise. In the United States, Duolingo recorded a 22% increase in Korean-language learners over the past year.

For Netflix, the anniversary serves as a reminder that KPop Demon Hunters was not simply a hit animated feature. It became a global pop-culture event whose reach continues to extend far beyond the platform that launched it.

While Netflix spent much of the past year celebrating the film’s success, the company is also laying the groundwork for what comes next. Earlier this year, Netflix and SPA officially confirmed that a sequel is in development, with directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans returning. The project is expected to continue the story of HUNTR/X and further expand the mythology introduced in the first film.

The sequel is only one part of Netflix’s broader plans for the property. According to Variety, the streamer is preparing a global live concert tour based on the film’s music, while this month’s anniversary celebrations have included theatrical rereleases, outdoor screenings, fan events, and new merchandise initiatives.

Upcoming outdoor screenings are listed below, with more info available here.

• Friday, June 19: Kenley Centennial Amphitheater, Salt Lake City — Free Friday Family Film Series
• Saturday, June 20: Honeysuckle Park, Atlanta — Doraville Summer Movie Series
• Saturday, June 20: Union Square Plaza, San Francisco — Cinema in the Square
• Saturday, June 20: Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, New York
• Saturday, June 20: Waterfront Park, San Diego — Summer Movies in the Park
• Wednesday, June 24: The Commons, Minneapolis — Music and Movies in the Parks
• Wednesday, June 24: Clark Park, Butte, Montana
• Thursday, June 25: Crocker Park Shopping Center, Cleveland — Movies in the Park
• Friday, June 26: Nobel Recreation Center, San Diego — Summer Movies in the Park