The Netflix original series 'When Life Gives You Tangerines' has surpassed 'Squid Game Season 2' to record the highest buzz among K-dramas.
The online buzz analysis agency Good Data Corporation recently announced through an official release that the total buzz score of 'When Life Gives You Tangerines,' accumulated up to the 5th week since its release, has surpassed 'Squid Game Season 2,' which had maintained the top spot on the same criteria, and the second place 'The Glory.' However, since Good Data's official OTT original drama buzz survey criteria have been applied since 2022, the record of 'Squid Game Season 1,' released in 2021, is not included in this ranking.
The Netflix original dramas 'Squid Game Season 2,' 'The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call,' 'Melodrama,' and 'When Life Gives You Tangerines,' released in 2025, have demonstrated high competitive buzz in their own right, with the cumulative buzz score of these four exceeding the total of 14 dramas released in 2024, Good Data added.
In particular, Netflix's departure from its previous 'all-at-once' strategy to introduce 'When Life Gives You Tangerines' in a 'staggered release' format has garnered attention. This approach is analyzed to have induced sustained viewer interest and word-of-mouth, leading to high buzz. Accordingly, interest is gathering regarding whether Netflix will change its content release strategies in the future.
Good Data’s Won Soon-woo, data PD, noted that “works that become more engaging as they progress tend to benefit from a staggered release,” adding that “conversely, if there is uncertainty about a work's quality or commercial potential, an all-at-once release may be more advantageous.”
Meanwhile, in the week 1 survey of April for the integrated TV-OTT drama sector, 'When Life Gives You Tangerines' achieved first place for the fifth consecutive week, while the newly released Netflix drama 'Karma' debuted in second place, resulting in Netflix dramas occupying both the first and second spots simultaneously.
Good Data’s weekly buzz survey is conducted by comprehensively analyzing program-related information and user responses from various platforms such as news articles, netizen responses (Voice of Netizen), video content (clips and short forms), and social media. Additionally, content unrelated to the program, or abusive material intended to inflate buzz scores artificially, is filtered out through a filtering process. Good Data guarantees analysis accuracy of over 97% based on this advanced filtering system.
The weekly rankings are released every Tuesday through the official FUNdex website.
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