‘Squid Game’ season 2 arrives with worse reviews than season 1

Squid Game season 2 has finally arrived after three years, the follow-up to the most-watched Netflix series of all time, which has become a full-fledged brand for the service. A second season was never supposed to exist in the first place, but with how successful it was, there was no choice, it seemed.

However, as very early reviews roll inthese initial results are below what they were for Season 1, at least so far. While it may come as no surprise, a follow-up won’t quite capture the viral magic of the original. Here’s the score difference right now, though I’ll update it over time as more reviews come in:

• Squid Game Season 1 – 95% critic score, 84% audience score
• Squid Game Season 2 – 90% critic score, 53% audience score

So don’t bad by any means, but lower than season 1. Some of the negative reviews criticize that the series has been cut from 9 episodes to only 7, a symptom of streaming culture where…it can take three years to make seven episodes of a new season of a show.

The main question about Squid Game Season 2 is not critic scores, but rather viewership. Again, Squid Game is the most watched show in Netflix history by a decent margin. Here is the top 10 list for all-time viewers:

1. Squid Game Season – 2.2 billion hours watched, 265.2 million views
2. Stranger Things Season 4 – 1.83 billion hours watched, 140.7 million views
3. Wednesday Season 1 – 1.72 billion hours watched, 252.1 million views
4. Dahmer – 1.03 billion hours watched, 115.6 million views
5. Bridgerton Season 1 – 929.3 million hours watched, 113.3 million views
6. Bridgerton Season 3 – 846.5 million hours watched, 106 million views
7. The Night Agent Season 1 – 803.2 million hours watched, 98 million views
8. The Queen’s Gambit – 746.4 million hours watched, 112.8 million views
9. Money Heist: Part 4 – 710.2 million watch hours, 106 million views
10. Fool Me Once – 629 million hours watched, 98.2 million views

So you can see here that sometimes, later seasons of shows have big jumps in ratings like Stranger Things. Others, like Bridgerton, peak in Season 1, though other seasons also do well. What will Squid Game do? My guess is that it can’t reach the heights that the original was such a viral sensation, I just don’t think it will be possible to repeat it. It feels less necessary than getting through the full arc of Stranger Things, but more like something Netflix had to do regardless of whether that was what people were actually about to see, no pun intended.

That said, of course it will do well. It might even be a sure thing for the top 10 or top 5 list, just based on the original alone. But #1 or #2? I very much doubt that.

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