Data story, 2026
The Netflix Effect: Do Hit Shows Make People Learn Languages?
One hit show produced a real, measured surge in learners. The rest is interest and intent. Here is the honest version.
By LingoBinge Editorial Team
Updated
When Squid Game became a global phenomenon in 2021, Duolingo reported that new Korean learners jumped about 40% in the United States and 76% in the United Kingdom in the two weeks after it premiered. That is the clearest case of the so-called Netflix effect, where a hit show sends people to learn its language. This page separates what is actually measured from what is only survey intent, and flags the popular claims that do not hold up, because the honest version is more useful than the hype.
Free to cite and reuse
Free to quote and share under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Every figure links to its own primary source, so credit that source for the number, and link here if you use the collection.
LingoBinge (2026). The Netflix Effect on Language Learning. https://lingobinge.com/netflix-effect
The one measured surge: Squid Game and Korean
This is the strongest, best-sourced case in the whole topic, reported by Duolingo itself and corroborated by Reuters.
- +40%#
New Korean learners on Duolingo in the United States rose about 40% in the two weeks after Squid Game premiered in September 2021.
Source: Duolingo (2021)
Duolingo's own reported figure, for the US. It reportedly rose toward 50% in the following weeks.
- +76%#
In Britain, new sign-ups to learn Korean rose about 76% over the same two weeks.
Source: Reuters, quoting Duolingo (2021)
This UK figure came from the Reuters wire, not Duolingo's own blog post, so it is cited to Reuters.
- 5 countries#
Korean was the fastest-growing language on Duolingo in Brazil, France, Germany, India, and Mexico in 2021, and its 7th most popular overall, which Duolingo credits to the pull of Korean entertainment.
Source: Duolingo 2021 Language Report (2021)
What people say: a survey on TV and motivation
Beyond that one surge, the evidence is self-reported intent, not measured sign-ups. It is honest and interesting, as long as you do not dress it up as a boom.
- 70%#
In a Duolingo survey, 70% of respondents said a TV show could motivate them to learn a language.
Source: Duolingo survey, via Ivey Business Review (2021)
Self-reported motivation, not measured learning.
- 37%#
Money Heist was the show most often named as one that could motivate learning a language, cited by 37%, for Spanish.
Source: Duolingo survey, via Benzinga (2021)
Intent, not a measured surge.
- 28%#
Squid Game was named next, by 28% of respondents, as a show that could motivate them to learn Korean.
Source: Duolingo survey, via Benzinga (2021)
- 20%#
Emily in Paris followed at 20%, for French.
Source: Duolingo survey, via Benzinga (2021)
Claims to read carefully
Some numbers in this space get repeated without a source, or get the framing wrong. Here is what the evidence actually supports.
Read carefully
A hit show causes people to learn its language.
Even the Squid Game figures are a jump in sign-ups around a premiere, not proof the show taught anyone Korean. Interest spikes; learning is the hard part that comes after. Read these as correlation, not causation.
Read carefully
Money Heist caused a surge in Spanish learners.
There is no measured surge for Money Heist, only the survey data where people named it as motivating. A Spanish-learning spike sometimes pinned on it actually traces to a separate music event, not the show.
Read carefully
Lupin and Dark drove French and German learning booms.
No measured figures exist for either. They appear on content-mill listicles but not in any primary Duolingo data we could verify, so we do not repeat them.
Read carefully
Emily in Paris boosted French learning by a set percentage.
Duolingo ran a marketing campaign around the show but published no learner-growth number. Only the survey-intent figure of 20% exists.
Embed or cite the open show difficulty dataset
The figures above belong to the sources they link to. LingoBinge's own data is separate and openly licensed: editorial difficulty estimates for a curated set of Netflix titles.
Canonical source: https://lingobinge.com/research/netflix-show-difficulty-index. Updated . Reuse the LingoBinge-owned annotations under CC BY 4.0.
Plain-text citation
LingoBinge Netflix show difficulty dataset. LingoBinge. Updated August 9, 2026. https://lingobinge.com/research/netflix-show-difficulty-index. CC BY 4.0.
HTML attribution
<cite>LingoBinge Netflix show difficulty dataset</cite>. LingoBinge. Updated August 9, 2026. <a href="https://lingobinge.com/research/netflix-show-difficulty-index">https://lingobinge.com/research/netflix-show-difficulty-index</a>. <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">CC BY 4.0</a>.Use with these limitations
- This is a curated catalogue of learner-suitable title-language entries, not a random or representative sample of Netflix.
- CEFR bands are editorial estimates for listening difficulty, not test results or guarantees that every learner will understand the same material.
- Availability changes by country and over time; verify the title in your own Netflix catalogue before choosing it.
- Rows with legacy-curated status predate the explicit review-state field and are not represented as evidence of a named human review.
Download the data
It is an exploratory, curated sample rather than a survey of Netflix. Free to download without a sign-up, and free to republish with credit.
Embed the finder
Paste this into your own page. It loads the live interactive finder, so it stays current on its own. Keep the credit line under it: that is the attribution the licence asks for.
<iframe src="https://lingobinge.com/tools/show-finder/embed" width="100%" height="720" loading="lazy" title="LingoBinge Netflix show difficulty finder"></iframe>
<p>Netflix show difficulty data by <a href="https://lingobinge.com/research/netflix-show-difficulty-index">LingoBinge</a></p>The shows that spark this interest, Money Heist, Squid Game, and Emily in Paris, are all learnable on LingoBinge. If a show already has your attention, that attention is the scarcest thing in language learning, and LingoBinge turns it into practice by swapping subtitle words at your level while you watch.
Frequently asked questions
- Did Squid Game make people learn Korean?
- Duolingo reported that new Korean learners rose about 40% in the US and 76% in the UK in the two weeks after the show premiered in 2021. It is a real jump in sign-ups, though it shows interest spiking around the premiere rather than proof the show taught anyone the language.
- Do Netflix shows actually help you learn a language?
- A show you love is a strong motivator, and the research on captioned viewing is positive, but a show only teaches you if you can follow it. Matching the show to your level and using graded subtitles matters more than the show itself.
- Which Netflix shows make people want to learn a language?
- In a Duolingo survey the shows named most often were Money Heist for Spanish, Squid Game for Korean, and Emily in Paris for French. All three are learnable with LingoBinge.