When Life Gives You Tangerines smashes viewership records set by Squid Game and The Glory

When Life Gives You Tangerines on Netflix is completely dominating the industry, shattering all previous records and changing the course of viewership and ratings.

Along with capturing the hearts of viewers, IU and Park Bo Gum’s series has surpassed huge K-drama hits like Squid Game and The Glory to become the highest-rated Korean drama on IMDb.

When Life Gives You Tangerines has risen above its initial rating of 8.7 on IMDb, with an amazing rating of 9.3 out of 10. Twelve of its sixteen episodes received ratings higher than 9.0, and its finale, Episode 16, achieved a practically flawless 9.8. According to Wikitree, this performance is far superior to earlier fan favorites like Kingdom Season 2 (8.5), Move to Heaven (8.5), Squid Game Season 1 (8.0), and The Glory (8.1).

On Netflix, the series has become a great hit. In March 2024, Netflix Korea surpassed The Glory’s previous record with 14.09 million monthly active users. More astonishingly, according to Wikitree, the IU-led series reached 4.05 million daily active users on March 29, 2025, its greatest one-day total since Squid Game Season 2 premiered in December 2023.

According to FlixPatrol, the series is also topping Netflix’s non-English TV rankings, ranking No. 8 globally as of April 3, 2025, and No. 1 from March 17 to March 23, 2025.

Viewers were kept on the edge of their seats by the show’s distinctive four-act seasonal style and weekly episode drops