Weekly Releases vs. The Whole Season at Once: A Look at Euphoria and Squid Game’s Show Release Strategies
- BY BEN KARON
5 min read | March 14, 2022
Over the last 6 months, two shows have absolutely dominated online conversation: Squid Game and Euphoria. Both shows have earned in the tens of millions in Total Tweets during this time span. However, each show has followed an entirely different distribution strategy, with Squid Game following the classic Netflix approach of releasing the entire series so fans can binge all the episodes right away, and Euphoria following a more “traditional” method of releasing episodes weekly.
We decided to take a closer look at the different strategies both networks use in releasing programs, and see what benefits and drawbacks each strategy may have.
TL;DR
- Over the last six months, Euphoria and Squid Game have dominated all other series in generating Total Tweets and Emotional Reactions
- While the weekly release cadence of Euphoria created more plateaus in online Reactions early in the season, engagement heavily spiked towards the end of a show’s season causing it to outperform even the most viral, binge-able shows
- Fan Passion spikes for Euphoria in the latter half of the season, helping the series maintain an engaged fanbase throughout the entire 2-month span of episode drops
Over the last six months, Euphoria and Squid Game have dominated all other series in generating Total Tweets and Emotional Reactions
In the last 6 months, all other series are currently playing for third place. Euphoria has generated well over 18M Total Tweets and 5.6M Emotional Reactions, currently standing as the number one show over the last 6 months.
Squid Game dominated the last few months of 2021, with Euphoria taking over as the most discussed show in the first quarter of 2022. The next highest performing show over that same time period was Arcane with less than half the Total Tweets of Euphoria and Squid Game.
Despite the shows’ overwhelming success, there is one primary difference between their distribution strategies: Euphoria is released on a weekly cadence, while Squid Game follows the standard Netflix distribution strategy of releasing the entire season at the same time.
While both strategies have their strengths and weaknesses, below we will take a closer look at the effect each distribution strategy has on the shows’ social engagement, and which allows for more fan passion and participation in online conversation.
While the weekly release cadence of Euphoria created more plateaus in online Reactions early in the season, engagement heavily spiked towards the end of a show’s season causing it to outperform even the most viral, binge-able shows
