‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Arrives With Worse Reviews Than Season 1

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

However, as very early reviews are releasedthose initial ratings are lower than they were for Season 1, at least so far. While it may end up not being a surprise, a sequel isn’t going to 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 rating, 84% audience rating
• Squid Game Season 2 – 83% critic rating, 77% audience rating

So no bad by all means, but lower than season 1. Some of the negative reviews criticize that the show has been cut from 9 episodes to just 7, a symptom of the streaming culture where… it can take three years for seven episodes of a new season to become a show.

The main question about Season 2 of The Squid Game isn’t the review ratings, but rather the viewership. Again, The Squid Game is the most watched series in Netflix history by a decent margin. Here is the list of the top 10 views of all time:

1. Squid Game Season – 2.2 billion watch hours, 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 watch hours, 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 watch hours, 112.8 million views
9. Money Heist: Part 4 – 710.2 million hours watched, 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, even if other seasons do well. What will the Squid Game do? My guess is that it can’t reach those heights that the original did 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 out of Netflix had to do regardless of whether it was what people were actually dying to see, no pun intended.

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

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