Which Non-English Series and Films Have Netflix Members Watched Most?

Squid Game Season 1 is the most viewed non-English show on Netflix, with 265.2 million views

Netflix publishes these rankings itself on Tudum, its official fan site, in four all-time lists: English TV, non-English TV, English films and non-English films. Every number on this page comes from those lists or from the Netflix What We Watched engagement reports and shareholder letters, and every figure is labelled with the metric (views or hours) and the period it covers. A view is total hours viewed divided by the runtime of the title, so it measures how many full watches a title received rather than how many accounts pressed play.

The non-English TV list is dominated by one country: four of the ten titles are Korean, and they hold 56.2 percent of the combined views. The film list is more evenly spread, with titles from six countries and no country above a third of the views. This page looks at both lists, explains why views and hours rank titles differently, and then uses the half-year engagement reports to show which countries are producing the newest hits.

The ten most popular non-English series of all time: Korea, Spain, France and Norway

The list below is the Netflix ranking of non-English TV seasons by views in their first 91 days. Each season or part of a split series counts as a separate title, which is why Squid Game, Money Heist and Lupin all appear more than once. The newest entry is the Korean limited series Teach You a Lesson, released in June 2026, which completed its 91 days in early September 2026 and now holds tenth place with 67.2 million views.

One franchise, three places: the three Squid Game seasons have 603.6 million views between them, slightly more than the other seven titles combined (590.6 million).

Views, hours and runtimes as published by Netflix on Tudum. Release years refer to the first Netflix release of each season or part. Money Heist Part 5 was released in two volumes in 2021.

Three things stand out. First, the gap at the top is large: Squid Game Season 1 has 2.5 times the views of Money Heist Part 4, the best non-Korean entry. Second, the list is old. Six of the ten titles were released in 2021 or earlier, three more, Squid Game Seasons 2 and 3 and La Palma, arrived in 2024 and 2025, and Teach You a Lesson is the only 2026 entry. Third, the entry bar is high: a series now needs more than 67 million views in 91 days to make the top 10, a level that very few non-English seasons reach in a year.

Views in 91 days: the rule behind every ranking on this page

Netflix ranks its Most Popular lists by views in the first 91 days after release. The footnotes to its shareholder letters define the terms: a view is hours viewed divided by runtime, and views for a title are based on the first 91 days since the release of each episode. Titles that have been out for fewer than 91 days are marked with an asterisk in the letters, and their figures run only from launch to a stated cut-off date.

The second rule explains apparent contradictions. Counterattack, a Mexican action film, had 71 million views in the January to June 2025 report but 66.9 million on the all-time 91-day list, because the half-year window gave it more than 91 days. Teach You a Lesson shows the opposite case: it had 48.2 million views in the first half of 2026, which covered only its first weeks, 55 million by 12 July 2026 according to the Q2 2026 shareholder letter, and 67.2 million at the end of its 91-day window.

Ranked by hours viewed, long Korean and Spanish seasons move up

Hours viewed is the other metric Netflix publishes for every title. Ranking the same ten series by hours changes the order, because hours reward long runtimes. Money Heist Part 5, at 9 hours and 5 minutes, has 900.7 million hours and moves from sixth to third. Teach You a Lesson, the longest season on the list at 10 hours and 41 minutes, moves from tenth to fifth with 718.3 million hours.

Runtime reshapes the ranking: the two short French and Norwegian series fall to the bottom by hours, while Money Heist Part 5 and Teach You a Lesson climb.

The short series show the other side of the same effect. La Palma, a Norwegian disaster drama of four episodes, runs 3 hours and 4 minutes, so its 70.3 million views translate into only 215.7 million hours, less than a third of the hours of Teach You a Lesson with fewer views. The ten titles generated 8.20 billion hours in their 91-day windows, and Squid Game Season 1 alone supplied 26.9 percent of that total. How much time members spend with the service overall is covered in our data on time spent streaming Netflix per account.

Korean titles hold 56 percent of the views on the TV list

Only four languages appear on the all-time non-English TV list. Korean titles account for 670.8 million of the 1.19 billion combined views, Spanish for 285.2 million, French for 167.9 million and Norwegian for 70.3 million. Each language comes from a single country: all Korean entries are from South Korea, all Spanish entries from Spain.

Korean leads, Spanish is second: Korean titles hold 56.2 percent of the views and 63.4 percent of the 8.20 billion hours, mostly because of the three Squid Game seasons.

Japanese, Hindi and Portuguese series are absent, even though they appear often in the weekly charts and the half-year reports. Their viewing is spread across many titles rather than concentrated in one season. Netflix said in the first half of 2026 report that more than half of its members watch anime, yet no single anime season comes close to the 67 million views needed for the top 10.

Squid Game: three seasons, three of the top three places

Squid Game Season 1, released in 2021, has 265.2 million views and 2,205.2 million hours in its first 91 days. It is the most popular season of any Netflix series in either language by this measure. The two later seasons each finished lower than the one before, yet still rank second and third among all non-English series.

Percentage changes are BusinessStats calculations from the Netflix figures.

Season 3 shows how fast the franchise still starts. In the Top 10 report for the week of 30 June 2025, its second week, it recorded 46.3 million views and was the most watched non-English show in every country Netflix ranks. Through two weeks it had 106.3 million views, which Netflix described as the third biggest start for any show through two weeks, and it had already climbed to third place on the non-English Most Popular list. In the same week Season 2 was second on the weekly non-English chart with 4.9 million views and Season 1 third with 3.8 million, which made Squid Game the third show ever to hold the top three places in a single week, after Stranger Things and Money Heist.

The franchise also dominates the half-year reports. Netflix said the three seasons together earned more than 230 million views in the first half of 2025, and Season 3 alone had 79 million views in the second half of 2025, the most of any non-English series in that report. Production budgets are not part of the Netflix disclosures used here; what the company does publish about series costs is covered in our report on the most expensive Netflix original series.

Where the non-English leaders would rank among all Netflix series

The English and non-English TV lists use the same 91-day views metric, so they can be merged. On the combined ranking, Squid Game Season 1 would be first, 13.1 million views ahead of Wednesday Season 1 (252.1 million), the leader of the English list. Squid Game Season 2 would be third and Season 3 fourth, both ahead of Adolescence, the most popular English limited series with 142.6 million views.

Three of the top four are Korean: below Squid Game, the merged list is entirely English, and Money Heist Part 4 (106.0 million) would rank 13th, level with Bridgerton Season 3.

The comparison also shows where English series are stronger: depth. All ten seasons on the English list have at least 106 million views, while only four non-English seasons reach that level. Outside Squid Game, the best non-English seasons sit in the 67 million to 106 million range, closer to the lower half of the English list. The English ranking is analysed in detail in our report on the most viewed English-language Netflix shows, and the leading English limited series in our data on Adolescence views worldwide.

Non-English films: Norway, France and Spain lead a six-country list

The non-English film list looks very different from the TV list. The leader, Troll, has 103.0 million views, less than half of Squid Game Season 1, and the top three are separated by only 4.5 million views. Ten films from six countries make the list, and the lowest entry, the German thriller Brick, has 61.8 million views.

A close race at the top: Troll, Under Paris and Society of the Snow are within 4.5 million views of each other; no single film or country dominates the way Squid Game does on TV.

The film list is also much newer. Five of the ten films came out in 2025, including The Great Flood, a Korean disaster film that had 66 million views in the second half of 2025 alone. Because films are short, their hours are small: the ten films produced 1.51 billion hours in their 91-day windows, less than one fifth of the 8.20 billion hours of the TV top 10. Society of the Snow, the longest film at 2 hours and 26 minutes, has the most hours (239.7 million) despite ranking third by views. A fuller profile of each film, with release details, is in our ranking of the most popular non-English Netflix films.

Korea wins on TV, Spain is the only country with three hits in both lists

Putting the two lists side by side shows two different strengths. South Korea has 670.8 million views on the TV list but only one film, The Great Flood, on the film list. Spain is the most balanced producer: three series and three films, with 285.2 million and 267.0 million views. Germany and Mexico appear only on the film list, and France and Norway appear on both.

Two different leaders: Korea holds the TV list, while Spain leads the film list and is the only country with three titles on each.

By language rather than country, Spanish is the largest language on the film list. The three films from Spain and Counterattack from Mexico add up to 333.9 million views, 39.6 percent of the 842.4 million views on the film top 10. Korean is the largest language on the TV list. Across both lists, Korean and Spanish titles together take 12 of the 20 places and 67.6 percent of the 2.04 billion combined views.

Non-English titles now drive more than a third of Netflix viewing

The all-time lists show the biggest individual hits. The What We Watched engagement reports show how large non-English viewing is overall. Of the reports reviewed here, Netflix gives a precise share only in its first, 30 percent for January to June 2023. Later reports use words rather than an exact percentage, but the direction is clear: from nearly a third in 2023 and 2024 to more than a third in the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026.

Wording as published in the Netflix newsroom versions of each report. The Q3 2026 shareholder letter (20 October 2026) adds that non-English viewing has grown from under 10 percent of total viewing a decade ago to more than a third today.

The July to December 2023 report is the only one that broke viewing down by language. Korean titles accounted for 9 percent of all views, Spanish-language titles for 7 percent and Japanese titles for 5 percent. Together those three languages made up 21 percent of all views, the majority of the non-English total of nearly a third.

This share matters for what Netflix carries in each country, because the company generally offers its own productions everywhere at once. How that shapes national catalogues is explained in our report on Netflix library size by country, and the budget behind the content in our analysis of Netflix content spending by year.

The biggest non-English series of January to June 2026

The all-time lists change slowly, so the half-year reports are the better guide to what is popular now. In the report for January to June 2026, published on 16 July 2026, Netflix members watched more than 97 billion hours in total. Korea placed four of the top seven non-English series highlighted by Netflix, led by Teach You a Lesson with 48.2 million views, which also made it the sixth most watched series of any language in the half. Spain had three series between 26 million and 34 million views.

Korea and Spain lead, eight countries appear: Poland, Brazil, Norway, Mexico and India each had a series with more than 19 million views in the half.

The report also named smaller hits from more countries: My Royal Nemesis from Korea (16 million), Made in Korea (18 million) and Taskaree: Smuggling Network (16 million) from India, My Dearest Assassin from Thailand (18 million), The Forger from Italy (17 million), The Polygamist from South Africa (17 million), Oasis from Spain (10 million), The Chestnut Man: Hide and Seek from Denmark (11 million) and the Japanese series Straight to Hell (10 million). Among films, Netflix named Dhurandhar from India the most watched non-English film of the half, with 37 million views; 180 from South Africa also had 37 million. Growth in the regions where these titles are made is tracked in our data on Netflix subscriptions by region.

July to December 2025: Squid Game, then a long list of countries

The report for July to December 2025, published on 20 January 2026, recorded 96 billion hours of viewing in total. Netflix said non-English titles accounted for over a third of it, with Korean, Spanish and Japanese shows and films among the most watched, and that anime represented over 4 percent of all viewing.

Source: Netflix newsroom, What We Watched the Second Half of 2025, 20 January 2026. Film is marked where Netflix described the title as a film. The list covers titles Netflix highlighted with at least 21 million views; it is not a complete ranking.

Comparing the two most recent reports, Korea had the top non-English series in both halves and at least three titles above 20 million views in each. Spain placed three series above 25 million views in both halves. Brazil and Norway produced big films in the second half of 2025, Caramelo and Troll 2, and big series in the first half of 2026, Radioactive Emergency and the Detective Hole adaptation.

What is new since July: Mexico, Denmark and the return of Lupin

The Q3 2026 shareholder letter, published on 20 October 2026, listed the newest local hits with views from launch to 18 October 2026. Most were still inside their 91-day windows, so their totals will rise. Facing El Chapo from Mexico had 58 million views and was pacing to become the second most viewed Mexican title globally, and The Secret Woman from Denmark had 47 million and was trending to become the most viewed Danish title ever.

Nine countries in one quarter: the letter named hits from Mexico, Denmark, France, Sweden, Korea, Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan and India.

The letter also made several country records explicit. Plastic Beauty (12 million) was on track to become the most viewed Netflix series ever in Japan, and The Perfect Lie (17 million) the most viewed series from the Netherlands. In India, Netflix said view hours grew 24 percent year on year in the quarter. Revenue per member in these regions is tracked in our analysis of Netflix ARPU by region.

The latest weekly chart, for 26 October to 1 November 2026, is led by France. Lupin Part 4 was first on the non-English TV list with 10.8 million views and 65.0 million hours in its second week, after debuting at first place with 6.4 million views in the week of 19 October. The return pulled the older seasons back up: Lupin Part 1 was second with 5.2 million views, Part 2 sixth with 3.2 million and Part 3 eighth with 3.0 million. With 17.2 million views after two weeks, Part 4 is still far from the 67.2 million needed to join Parts 1 and 2 on the all-time list.

Source: Netflix Tudum Top 10, non-English TV, week of 26 October to 1 November 2026. Top five of ten shown.

Claims changed or removed from the earlier version of this page

How these figures were compiled

All-time rankings were read from the four Netflix Tudum Most Popular lists on 6 November 2026, when the latest published week was 26 October to 1 November 2026. Half-year figures come from the Netflix newsroom versions of the What We Watched reports, and in-quarter figures from the Q2 and Q3 2026 shareholder letters, whose footnotes define a view and the 91-day window. Weekly figures come from the Tudum weekly Top 10 for non-English TV.

Language totals, country totals, shares, ratios, the merged English and non-English ranking and percentage changes are BusinessStats calculations from the published Netflix numbers. Country of production follows the grouping Netflix uses in its reports where available; Spanish-language titles from Mexico are counted under Mexico. Half-year views, 91-day views and partial in-window views are never added together, because they cover different periods. Weekly and half-year figures will be superseded as Netflix publishes new data; from 2027 Netflix will publish the engagement report once a year instead of twice.

Non-English Netflix hits in eight numbers

Questions about the most viewed non-English Netflix shows and films