Gong Yoo's "Goblin" has finally beat "Descendants of the Sun" as the most watched video on demand series. The tvN hit fantasy drama dethroned action drama topbilled by Song Song couple Song Hye Kyo and Song Joong Ki which aired in early 2016 by nearly doubled revenues.
According to a report by Soompi, figures reported by Cable TV-IPTV indicated that throughout December 2016 to February 2017 pegged the total income from video on demand subscription for the drama at 14 billion won which roughly translates to $12.5 million. While the drama has already ended in January this year, this revenue means that there are still 15-16 million viewers who are rewatching the drama.
Before the feat was achieved by "Goblin", the top sellers for VOD were "Reply 1988" which raked in a total of 300 million or approximately $6.2 million. The figures for "Descendants of the Sun" was not released officially but sources estimate the revenue to be roughly the same as "Reply 1988."
At the height of its success, "Descendants of the Sun" also enjoyed huge popularity on Baidu's streaming platform iQiyi.com from China which brought streaming rights to the show and helped shoulder 40 percent of $11 million production cost for the military drama. According to a report by Forbes, the show was viewed on iQiyi.com over 1 billion times. This performance does not include syndication from different Asian and Western countries.
It was reported that KBS2 is planning a second season of "Descendants of the Sun" to thank its fans for the support enjoyed by the show worldwide but the busy schedules of its lead stars has become the main reason for production delays. For his part, "Goblin" lead star Gong Yoo dismissed the idea of a second season for their show saying that it is better to leave the end of some stories the way they are.
