Disney+’s latest Korean original “Nine Puzzles” has surged to the top of the service’s global charts, becoming the platform’s most-watched Korean series of 2025 less than ten days after its debut on 21 May. Rapid uptake across Asia pushed the mystery thriller to the No. 1 position in seven APAC territories, and its cumulative minutes streamed now outpace last year’s record-setting launch of “Moving.”
Usage data compiled by analytics site FlixPatrol shows “Nine Puzzles” holding the top slot in South Korea every day since premiere and never dropping below second place in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan or Turkey. The title also entered FlixPatrol’s global Top 10, the only non-English series on that list this week.
Local industry tracker Good Data Corporation reports a jump to No. 2 on its weekly TV-OTT drama buzz index, reflecting both press coverage and social-media chatter. Viewers cite the show’s nonlinear structure and Kim Da-mi–Son Suk-ku pairing as key draws, echoing the streamer’s own marketing push.
Set a decade after an unsolved murder, the series follows profiler Yoon E-na and detective Han Saem as fresh killings arrive, each marked by a cryptic puzzle piece. Disney+ released the first six episodes simultaneously, with three more dropping on 28 May and the final two scheduled for 4 June. Hulu’s U.S. listing confirms nine episodes are currently available with English dub, broadening the audience beyond Korean-speaking markets.
Disney’s Asia-Pacific content chief Carol Choi credits Korean storytelling for nine of the service’s fifteen best-performing international originals last year and pledged continued investment at November’s APAC Content Showcase. That strategy delivered hits such as “Moving,” which set the previous view-time benchmark and now provides a yardstick for “Nine Puzzles.”
Industry analysts note that sustained engagement across multiple regions may encourage Disney+ to accelerate green-light decisions on genre series from Korea, where production costs remain competitive compared with U.S. dramas. FlixPatrol’s country-by-country tables already show “Nine Puzzles” outperforming several Marvel previews in Taiwan and Turkey, a sign of shifting subscriber priorities.
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With its finale still to come, the series has the potential to deepen Disney’s Korean footprint and reinforce the platform’s pivot toward multilingual originals—an approach that corporate leadership insists is central to subscriber growth.
