Netflix’s Latest Blockbuster Smashes Records to Become Its Biggest Movie of All Time
KPop Demon Hunters has rocketed past all competition to become Netflix’s most-watched movie ever, shattering records and cementing its status as the platform’s 2025 sensation.
Remember when Netflix originals would set some kind of impressive record, then get knocked off the pedestal a month later? Well, 2025 threw out the usual playbook with KPop Demon Hunters. This animated K-pop/demon-fighting mashup isn’t just another hit—it's obliterated every record Netflix ever put on the board.
Breaking the Netflix Scale
As of the end of 2025, KPop Demon Hunters is officially Netflix's most-watched movie, period—not just animated, not just in 2025, but ever. The numbers are, frankly, ridiculous. During the July to December 2025 window alone, it racked up over 540 million views. Just to illustrate how bananas that is: if you take the three previous chart-toppers Back in Action (164.7 million views), Damsel (143.8 million), and Carry-On (137.3 million) and add them together, they still come up about 35 million short of what KPop Demon Hunters did all by itself, only in the back half of the year.
The movie didn’t just pop onto the top 10 and fade out, either. It stuck around for 31 weeks straight—so if you logged into Netflix basically any time after June, you had to actively dodge its thumbnail.
Theatrical Run: Yep, It’s Real
Usually with a Netflix original, "in theaters" means a barely advertised week at your nearest arthouse. Not this time. Netflix pulled a stunt and put a special sing-along edition of KPop Demon Hunters in actual theaters, and it paid off—it topped the North American box office for those screenings. I didn’t see that one coming, you probably didn’t either.
What Is This Movie Again?
If you missed the buzz, here’s the quick rundown:
- Premise: A K-pop girl group called Huntr/x moonlights as demon hunters, fighting supernatural baddies with (what else?) the power of music.
- Directors: Kang & Appelhans
- Voice Cast: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, Lee Byung-hun. (There are some serious star voices in there.)
Awards, Charts, and Enough Stream Numbers to Make Your Head Spin
There’s a weird amount of crossover appeal here: the movie is a monster streaming success, the official soundtrack went platinum (and is still somehow a chart-buster), and, according to Billboard, it's the first soundtrack ever with four different tracks in the Hot 100's Top 10 at the same time. Movie tie-in albums usually wish they could get close to that.
It didn’t get ignored by the industry, either:
'KPop Demon Hunters' won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Motion Picture, and its song 'Golden' also nabbed Best Original Song.
Netflix's official press is practically bursting with self-congratulation over this, and honestly, it's hard to blame them. This is one of those wild, everybody-talks-about-it hits that makes executives feel justified greenlighting stranger stuff next year.