SINGAPORE - With the pandemic keeping audiences at home, Netflix viewing across all genres of films and television went up compared to last year in Singapore - by as much as 200 per cent.
The streaming giant revealed on Thursday (Dec 10) the top most-watched title in each genre this year and South Korean content performed strongly. K-dramas saw a surge in viewership of almost 200 per cent.
The top K-drama title was the Lee Min-ho and Kim Go-eun vehicle The King: Eternal Monarch; and the most enduring one was Kim Soo-hyun and Seo Ye-ji's romance drama It's Okay To Not Be Okay, which stayed in the top 10 list in Singapore for 103 days.
While the top performing title in different genres was announced, Netflix did not provide viewing numbers nor an overall top 10 list.
In the horror genre, the K-zombie flick #Alive, led by Yoo Ah-in, took the top spot, knocking out other hot titles like the 2005 local movie The Maid and this year's Netflix original series The Haunting Of Bly Manor.
And thrilling tales of true-crime and the social-media documentary The Social Dilemma were no match for K-pop girl group Blackpink, whose documentary Blackpink: Light Up The Sky topped the documentary category this year.
Films also did well with local viewers with Enola Holmes - the young adult tale of Sherlock Holmes' younger sister - coming in at No. 1 in the drama genre.
It was up against strong competitors like the recent chess drama The Queen's Gambit and the urban fantasy Lucifer - now in its fifth season. The tension-filled infidelity K-drama The World Of The Married also performed well in the drama category. Drama viewing was up by nearly 70 per cent this year.
The Singapore-set Hollywood romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians was the most popular romance film on the service. Staying home seemed to make audiences yearn for passionate love affairs as viewership of romance titles increased by more than 200 per cent.
And despite brickbats for its superficiality and unrealistic story lines, the series Emily In Paris - about a young American woman who moves to Paris for work - was No. 1 in the comedy genre. The show has since been renewed for a second season.
Extraction - the Chris Hemsworth movie about a mercenary who has to rescue a drug lord's kidnapped son - was most-watched in the action genre.
In other assorted genres, the Spanish series Money Heist: Part 4 was Singapore's favourite thriller; families enjoyed the animated kids film The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019); and anime fans caught their fill of Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution (2019).
