‘Money Heist: Korea’ debuts at No. 1 on Netflix’s official viewership chart

Netflix’s new South Korean series “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” has debuted at No. 1 on the streamer’s latest weekly viewership chart of non-English TV shows.

Released last Friday, the Korean remake of the smash-hit Spanish original series “Money Heist” marked 33.7 million hours of viewing for the week of June 20-26 to lead the official top 10 list for non-English TV programs available on the service, according to Netflix on Tuesday (U.S. time).

This image provided by Netflix highlights that “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” finished No. 1 on Netflix’s weekly top 10 chart for non-English TV shows for the week of June 20-26. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

The six-episode series made the top 10 on the most-watched non-English TV show table in 51 countries over the one-week period and topped the list in six nations, including South Korea and Thailand.

“Money Heist: Korea” placed second on a daily global chart for TV programs on Netflix released by streaming analytics company FlixPatrol on the same day. The ranking was up one notch from third place on Sunday.

By country, it was the most popular TV show in 16 countries, including South Korea, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Maldives, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

It ranked second in 13 countries, including Japan, the Bahamas, Ecuador, Kenya, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and third in nine countries, such as Italy, Colombia, Bahrain, Hungary, Honduras, Jordan and Kuwait. The show came fifth in Spain, where the original was made.

Set on the Korean Peninsula, where the two Koreas establish a joint economic area (JEA) as a first step toward unification, a group of thieves from the South and the North overtake the mint at the JEA, and the police of the two Koreas join hands to stop them. It stars Yoo Ji-tae, Kim Yun-jin, Park Hae-soo and Jun Jong-seo.

Besides it, two more Korean dramas were on the top 10 TV show list. “Ghost Doctor,” starring Jung Ji-hoon and Kim Beom, and “Alchemy of Souls,” starring Lee Jae-wook and Jung So-min, both tvN dramas, ranked at No. 6 and No. 10, respectively.