4Game

If you presume that the data here is accurate:
https://www.comparitech.com/tv-streaming/netflix-subscribers/

It means that the majority of Netflix subscribers come from the Americas and western Europe.

If you look at this post, and presume that the data here is accurate:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/oayxdp/stats_about_players_in_each_country/

If you bundle together Russia, Ukraine, China, Indonesia, and Philippines, then you have 5.8 million players in those countries alone, and around 2.8 million players in the United States and everywhere else.

So nearly 67% of players are in countries where Netflix subscriptions are a drop in the bucket.

Sometimes I see posts here on Reddit where people make comparisons to Arcane's popularity and how it ranked globally compared to Dragon's Blood, but the reality is that it's likely that the goals here are different.

There's no doubt that League of Legends is popular almost everywhere, especially in the United States where the vast majority of Netflix subscribers are.

But here is why it's not necessarily important for Dragon's Blood to be globally successful at the same scale as Arcane:

• Netflix is not available in China, where supposedly 1.8 million players are
• Subscription rates in Russia, Europe and Asia don't have super strong subscription rates

Russia, Europe and Asia are likely markets that Netflix wants to grow in, and so picking up content like Dragon's Blood is likely a strategic decision.

It's likely that both Valve and Netflix know this and why Dragon's Blood does not need to be in the top 10 global rankings to be considered successful, and it's because the content is aimed primarily at growing non-US markets!

I think it's also obvious that Arcane had a much bigger production budget than Dragon's Blood, and it's likely that the budget conforms to the financials related to developing regions, vs. creating content for major markets like the United States.

So, if we want Dragon's Blood to be successful and possibly even bigger budgets in the future, it's more about getting viewership in Europe, Asia Pacific, and other developing markets.

For some context, and as an example, it costs around $2.90 USD (149 PHD) for the cheapest subscription in the Philippines (sorry, I didn't check other places). If you don't have a subscription and want to watch, and can afford the $2.90 USD for 1 month, the value is pretty good for 4-8 hours of content (2 seasons of Dota) + all other Netflix content.

I think we pay around that much for Dota+ but at least Netflix releases new content daily/weekly 🙂