If previously viewership ratings were considered an important factor in evaluating the success of Korean dramas, in recent years, many works, although ratings are not too outstanding, have created a large discussion on social networks, online platforms and forums.
Most recently, we can mention "We are all trying here" - a healing drama by JTBC starring Koo Kyo Hwan and Go Yoon Jung.
According to Nielsen Korea, the film started around 2% and reached 5.3% in the last episode. However, throughout the broadcast, the work remained in the group of films most discussed thanks to word-of-mouth effects and online platform spread.
Previously, many other works had also created similar phenomena. Joo Ji Hoon's "Horizon" caused great controversy thanks to its heavy psychological color and the way it exploited the dark side of human beings, although it did not have outstanding viewership ratings.
Meanwhile, Ha Jung Woo's "Concrete Dream" attracted attention thanks to the topic of real estate and the pressure of owning private assets, creating more discussions than thanks to rating figures.
In fact, this change reflects the current movie viewing habits of audiences. Instead of sitting in front of the TV screen during fixed broadcast hours, many young viewers switch to watching movies through OTT (online movie viewing platform), short videos, clips on social networks or watching them again after the movie airs.
This is also the reason why many movies do not achieve too high ratings but still continuously appear on TikTok, short YouTube videos Shorts or Korean forums such as Theqoo, Instiz thanks to dialogues, emotional scenes or actors' acting.
Current Korean films also tend to prioritize emotional depth and character psychology rather than shocking details.
Works such as "The War in Us", "Today Selling Up Again", "Blue Light" or many recent healing films all build slow narration, many silent moments and imperfect characters. This makes films easier to create debate, analysis and share emotions on social networks.
However, television ratings still play an important role for major stations and advertisers. In fact, many movies today can still be successful both in terms of viewership and online discussion, such as "My Royal Enemy", "Secret Inspector" or "21st Century Housewives", "The Ghost Lawyers".
However, Korean media believes that the appeal of the film today is no longer determined by a single factor. Besides ratings, the spread on social networks, the number of viewers on online platforms and the level of engagement of the audience community are also increasingly becoming important criteria for evaluating the success of a work.
In other words, in the context of a rapidly changing content market, a Korean film does not necessarily have to achieve a two-digit rating to be considered successful.
