Netflix has announced a list of its content that had been immensely popular among its viewers in 2020 and The Queen’s Gambit is the biggest limited series in the history of the streaming service platform.
According to Netflix, 62 million viewers watched the show in the first 28 days of its release. “Not only did 62m member households choose to watch The Queen’s Gambit in its first 28 days (making this show our biggest limited series in Netflix history), but it ignited sales of chess sets and inspired the next generation of chess prodigies,” it said.
A Netflix ‘limited series’ is usually a television show with a predetermined number of episodes telling a complete story arc. In other words, it acts like a mini-series with usually around 4-10 episodes where the main story arc of the show will be fully resolved within that time-frame.
Netflix further said that series accounted for nine out of the 10 most searched shows globally on Google in 2020, which were Tiger King, Money Heist, Cobra kai, The Umbrella Academy, Emily in Paris, Ozark, The Queen’s gambit, Outer Banks, and Locke & Key.
Also, its films represented two of the top 10 most searched movies globally in 2020 – 365 Dni and Enola Holmes.
With these achievements, Netflix’s video streaming service has surpassed 200 million subscribers for the first time.
After its upending the DVD-rental industry, Netflix introduced the then-revolutionary concept of streaming TV shows and films 14 years ago. At that time, its service had a mere 6 million subscribers.
The streaming service began to grow rapidly seven years ago when Netflix started producing its own shows and accelerated a worldwide expansion that now spans more than 190 countries. Since the February 2013 debut of its first original series, House of Cards, Netflix has attracted more than 170 million additional subscribers.
Netflix gained another 37 million subscribers last year, a 22% increase from 2019. Netflix’s stock fared even better, rising by 67% last year. The Los Gatos, California, company now boasts a market value of more than $220 billion.
(With inputs from agencies)