Suicide rates in South Korea and internationally following release of the Netflix series ‘Squid Game’

Abstract

Objective

Widely disseminated media depictions of suicide can result in increased suicides, the so-called Werther effect. Season one of the Netflix series Squid Game (SG) was released in September 2021 and contained multiple depictions of suicide, but suicide was not an obvious theme of the show. This study sought to identify whether release of SG resulted in a Werther effect.

Methods

We examined changes in suicide rates in the three-month period following release of SG including weekly suicide rates from the country where SG was filmed (South Korea) (2013–2022) and monthly rates from nine comparator countries (Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, UK, USA, Colombia, Mexico, Türkiye) (2015–2022). We conducted interrupted time series (ITS) analyses using quasi-Poisson regression, adjusting for impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, linear trends, and seasonality.

Results

There was no evidence of a change in suicides in South Korea in the four weeks after release of SG (IRRs: 0.86, 95% CI 0.71–1.05; 1.13, 95% CI 0.95–1.34; 0.85, 95% CI 0.70–1.02; and 1.08, 95% CI 0.90–1.28, respectively). Age- and sex-stratified results likewise indicated no consistent change in suicide in any specific demographic group. There was no change in monthly suicide rates in the 3-month period following SG in eight of 10 countries with an increase observed in Germany (IRR 1.12, 95% CI 1.03–1.22) and a decrease observed in the UK (IRR 0.88, 95% CI 0.80–0.97).

Conclusions

These findings indicate that SG did not produce Werther effects. Further studies are needed to confirm if this finding generally applies to entertainment media where suicides are included but not a major theme.