For better or worse, Netflix has achieved a level of global dominance in the TV/streaming world, being the service that most other competitors have been playing catch-up to since the mid-2010s. Without going into too much of a history lesson, the company wasn't always known for being a streaming service, but helped pioneer that industry in the early 2010s in the U.S. and Canada. It expanded throughout other territories in the following years, being something of a juggernaut by that decade's second half.
This has resulted in plenty of non-English-language TV shows - both original content and titles licensed by Netflix - becoming extraordinarily popular around the world, naturally giving the service additional reach outside of places like the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. The following seasons of TV have accumulated the most views (in their first 28 days of release) out of all the non-English-language shows on Netflix, and are ranked below from very popular to most popular.
Movies and shows about class inequality are all the rage nowadays (as the late Prince might say, it could be a sign o' the times), with Elite taking that concept and mixing it with high school drama. It takes place inside a prestigious private school in Spain, tracking conflict between the few teenagers there from working-class families and the students who come from wealthy backgrounds.
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Things reveal themselves to have life-or-death stakes, meaning that even if it's not the most realistic high school show out there, it's certainly one of the most popular in recent memory. It began in 2018, and has a seventh season planned for 2023, with season 3 (comprised of eight episodes that were all released on March 2020) being the most-watched season on Netflix so far.
Lupin is a French mystery/thriller series based on the character of Arsène Lupin, an expert thief/master of disguise who originated as a character in a series of short stories first published more than a century ago. The character's also inspired an iconic manga/anime franchise called Lupin III, based on the original character's grandson (Hayao Miyazaki's first feature film was one of the character's many adventures).
This new update for the character has had an interesting release strategy, where episodes come out in parts, rather than full seasons. Both parts 1 and 2 came out at different points in 2021 (with part 1 being the most popular so far), and a third part is expected to be released in 2023.
For those who can't get enough romance-centric media, Café con aroma de mujer (or The Scent of Passion) is sure to keep such viewers engaged for a good while. It's a Spanish-language soap opera that's comprised of a single season that ran for almost 100 episodes, with each one being released throughout 2021.
This might make the audience kind of niche, as far as frequently viewed Netflix content goes, seeing soap operas aren't for everyone. The core premise here is particularly simple, too, as it revolves around all the drama caused when a wealthy man and a poorer harvest girl fall in love. It's likely that the huge number of episodes within one "season" is one reason why this show ranks as one of the most-viewed non-English-language shows on the platform.
Though it's only aired a single season so far (in 2022), Extraordinary Attorney Woo quite rapidly became one of the most popular non-English-language shows on Netflix. It's a South Korean show that follows a young autistic lawyer (with an IQ over 160) joining a respected law firm, showing how she uses her extraordinary photographic memory and intelligence to instantly become one of the top lawyers in the business.
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It had a 16-episode first season that had an interesting episode rollout, with two episodes being released every week instead of one (which is also different from the classic Netflix "drop them all at once" approach). It's been praised for the way it depicts autism (not all shows that try this succeed), and has been popular enough to get renewed for a second season.
Money Heist is one of many TV shows that signify how watching bad (or at least not great) people can make for great television. It's a Spanish crime/thriller series that began airing on Antena 3 - a Spanish network - in 2017, eventually getting picked up by Netflix, with the latter producing subsequent episodes (it therefore followed a similar trajectory to Black Mirror).
As will be demonstrated below, it's a series that continually picked up steam as it went along, gradually getting more popular with every new season (or "part") that was released. Part 3 - which dropped in 2019 - proved to exceed the views of the first two parts, but the show's popularity was yet to reach its peak...
Unlike Money Heist, the revenge-themed South Korean drama series The Glory has seen its first season get more views than its second, but perhaps the recency of season 2 has put it at a disadvantage. After all, season 1 dropped at the very end of 2022, and season 2 came out just over two months later, on March 10, 2023.
It's got the kind of premise that will hook viewers quickly, but might not seem sustainable for a great many seasons, given it focuses on an adult woman seeking revenge on those who used to bully her when she was in school. Regardless of how long it lasts, it's proven to be a compelling look at themes surrounding vengeance and trauma, made even more intense by the fact that it's taken inspiration from real-life events.
It's no secret that dramatic shows love to kill off characters, as do zombie-related movies/shows. Therefore, the title All of Us Are Dead feels like it's fitting in more ways than one, given that it takes place at a high school where an outbreak ensures many students are (un)dead, and because many characters do indeed die.
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The high school setting gives All of Us Are Dead a certain novelty factor that differentiates it from other zombie media, and it needs that, given there's no shortage of zombies out there. Its first season has proven to be the second-most popular South Korean Netflix series of all time, and it's made fans hungry for a second.
The suspense, action, and ambitious heists continued with Money Heist's fourth part, a collection of eight episodes that dropped in 2020. Part 3 ended in a particularly hectic fashion, with part 4 picking up with some of the core group of characters in disarray - some in danger, others believed dead, and others gravely hurt.
Despite the show's continued success into its fourth season, the IMDb ratings suggest that this batch of episodes represented a slight dip in quality compared to what came before. Still, the multiple hours watched by viewers suggested the Spanish crime series still had legs, and those legs would continue to run the story into one final, even more popular part.
While spin-offs are inevitably going to keep Money Heist going in some capacity, part 5 represents the end of the core show, and the main storylines it had focused on since 2017. It begins with the gang trapped inside the Bank of Spain, and maintains a level of heightened suspense and tension throughout.
It was already an unpredictable show known for being one where anything could happen at any time, and the knowledge that part 5 is the end of it all naturally heightens that white-knuckle feeling even more. It clearly captivated the fanbase it had accumulated in the years since 2017, with part 5 being the most watched for the show as a whole.
Of course the most popular non-English-language show on Netflix is the first (and so far only) season of Squid Game. This is a show that seemingly everyone was talking about back in 2021, and it's proven so popular that it's inspiring an already controversial (and questionable) game show spin-off.
It's questionable because the original South Korean show revolves around a high-stakes series of games where people desperate for cash participate against others, with death being a very real possibility for those who aren't successful. Squid Game quickly became one of the most popular Netflix shows of all time (English-language or otherwise), making another season a no-brainer to greenlight on the part of Netflix.
NEXT: Why Black Mirror's "Mazey Day" Twist Doesn't Work