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The Disney+ original series The Manipulated is sweeping rankings.
The Manipulated is an action drama that follows Tae Jung (Ji Chang Wook), an ordinary man who gets wrongfully imprisoned for a heinous crime, only to discover that everything was orchestrated by Yo Han (Doh Kyung Soo). He then sets out to take revenge on him.
The K-drama has been consistently sweeping rankings on Disney+'s Top 10 lists in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Türkiye (FlixPatrol).
The Manipulated is based on the cinematic universe of the 2017 film Fabricated City. CJ ENM's film division, which handled the film's investment and distribution at the time, participated from the initial planning stage. Writer Oh Sang Ho, who penned the film's script, also wrote the K-drama's screenplay.
CJ ENM CP Lee Jin said, "We judged that revenge and action genres have global universality, so we expanded the universe of the film into a series," adding, "We are pleased that the series also received a strong response immediately after release, just like the film. We will continue to expand engaging material."
TVING's thriller Dear X is also enjoying popularity on major OTT platforms — HBO Max, Disney+ Japan, Rakuten Viki, and Starz.
Dear X tells the story of Baek Ah Jin (Kim You Jung), who, having endured domestic violence in childhood, wears a mask to hide her emotions and escape a hellish life, and climbs to the top by manipulating people.
Since its release on November 6, the K-drama has ranked No. 1 for two consecutive weeks in TVING's weekend metric for new paid subscriber contribution.
In its first week of release, Dear X ranked in the Top 3 for weekly viewership on Rakuten Viki in the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and India, and grabbed No. 1 in a total of 108 countries, including the United States, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and India.
It has also retained popularity in Asia, ranking in the Top 3 on Disney+ Japan's daily rankings.
In the Middle East–North Africa (MENA) region, the series was released on Starz as the first CJ ENM title to simultaneously feature Arabic subtitles, and it rose to the Top 5 in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
According to HBO Max, Dear X is considered one of the top-performing Asian titles across 17 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific — including Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
A TVING representative stated, "The huge response to TVING's first title launched globally once again confirms the competitiveness of K-content," adding, "In particular, this achievement is an important milestone showing the successful global expansion potential of Korean OTT original IP. We expect Dear X to firmly establish itself as a hallmark of K-content as it expands its global fanbase."
