Viewing Figures: Daytime Soaps trend downward; ‘Squid Game’ loses #1 spot on Netflix
South Korea: The South Korean drama series Our Golden Days debuted on Aug. 9, 2025, on KBS2, airing two episodes a week on Saturdays and Sundays. With an average viewership of 14.01% throughout the month of August, the series has dominated the ratings of all ongoing dramas in South Korea since its debut. The August 31 episode of Our Golden Days achieved its highest percentage of ratings to date, scoring 15.9%, while the August 16 episode had the lowest percentage, with 12.6%. Still, these numbers are much higher than its competitors, and Our Golden Days was the only ongoing drama series in South Korea to achieve more than 10% of viewers in August.
Meanwhile, Chanel A’s My Lovely Journey once again scored the lowest percent of South Korean viewers in August, with only 0.3%. The series premiered on August 2 and aired every Saturday and Sunday until its 10th and final episode on August 31. Our Golden Days achieved its highest percent of audience viewership during its debut on August 2 with 0.6%, while the August 23 episode scored only 0.2% of viewers.
On the streaming side, Netflix’s Squid Game lost its reign as the number one non-English language drama series to the new series Two Graves in August. Released on August 29, Two Graves averaged 8.6 million views since its debut. Meanwhile, Sakamoto Days and Aema tied for the least watched non-English language drama series on Netflix, with 1.1 million views in August.
K-Drama Broadcast Ratings
United Kingdom: ITV’s Coronation Street, the world’s longest running soap opera, remained the highest rated drama series in the United Kingdom throughout August, airing three episodes a week and averaging 4.23 million viewers over the month, slightly beating its July figures of 4.01 million viewers. While these figures are a far cry from the glory days of 20.0 million viewers weekly, Coronation Street still ranks as ITV’s highest rated drama.
ITV’s Emmerdale and BBC One’s EastEnders trailed slightly behind Coronation Street in the August U.K. ratings, with 3.44 and 3.18 and million viewers respectively. Meanwhile, BBC One’s Casualty placed dead bottom in the ratings again, averaging 2.51 million viewers for the month. Significantly, Coronation Street was the only drama series of the four to increase in ratings during the month of August.
United Kingdom Broadcast Drama Ratings
United States: The CBS Soap Opera The Young and the Restless continues its long reign as the highest rated daytime drama in the United States, averaging 2.9 million viewers for the month of August. This figure is slightly below the soap’s July average of 3.07 million viewers, a season high. Sister soap The Bold and The Beautiful trails slightly behind with an average of 2.45 million viewers for the month. Meanwhile, despite being the lowest rated soap on American daytime television, Beyond the Gates was the only daytime drama to maintain its August ratings, averaging 1.51 million viewers for the month.
ABC’s General Hospital, the longest-running American soap opera still in production, finished August with an average of 1.82 million viewers, slightly lower than July. These figures are much smaller than the glory days of the 80’s, when the soap was at the top of the daytime drama ratings, which fans can thank for the show still airing today and before losing its position to The Young and the Restless. General Hospital scored its highest ratings ever on November 16-17, 1981, when supercouple Luke and Laura got married. Nearly 30 million viewers tuned into the supercouple’s wedding, and Elizabeth Taylor guest starred as the fan favorite villain Helena Cassadine. This marked the character’s first (and only) on screen appearance before Constance Towers took in 1996 when the character returned to Port Charles.
