Now seems like the ideal moment to highlight TikTok, one of Netflix’s main traffic generators, while Straw continues to top the charts and Squid Game returns for its third and final season. TikTok, whose short-form virality has helped propel shows and movies to international fame, is partially or fully responsible for the explosive success of several of the streamer’s breakthrough smashes.
Data extraction from TikTok is a challenging task. TikTok is still far less transparent than YouTube, which can be monitored via websites like SocialBlade. The majority of the labor consists of manually searching for viral clips on the platform and keeping track of titles in the Netflix Top 10. TikTok’s internal Creative Center provides some insights, though.
Naturally, Squid Game received one of the biggest boosts from TikTok, even if English-language games get the most from it. Like practically every other Netflix Original series from the region, Squid Game had a slow start to its debut week in the Netflix Top 10. Clips of the startling Red Light Green Light game and the eye-catching visual style were the primary reasons why the series took off in the weeks that followed, after it became viral on TikTok. With more lethal games and T.O.P. leading the meme season, Season 2 was also an amazing ride on TikTok.
Adolescence and Baby Reindeer, two UK successes, both had second and third week jumps in the Netflix Top 10s, which are frequently the most obvious signs of TikTok-driven popularity. Each of these episodes, which went viral for quite different reasons, experienced huge spikes in viewership in week two and beyond, eventually becoming some of Netflix’s most popular series.
Let’s create a chart with some of these instances. Perhaps the most well-known instances of TikTok boosts are Adolescence, Squid Game, and Baby Reindeer, where you can observe a gradual or modest beginning that sharply increases with time.
But the reality is that most shows in the Netflix Top 10 have gone viral for one reason or another:
- For Wednesday, Jenna Ortega’s dance skyrocketed the show’s popularity.
- For Stranger Things, the Kate Bush song and various season 4 clips exploded on TikTok.
- Bridgerton edits, and let’s be honest, thirst traps, picked up millions of views across every season.
- Beef got a huge uplift in its second week thanks to several clips of the show going viral.
The partnership is mutually beneficial. As more people watch Netflix, more sequences are clipped and posted. As a result, people are frequently compelled to watch viral TikTok trends simply to participate in the discussion. Although this dynamic is present on many platforms, TikTok is without a doubt the leader of the cycle.
STRAW, which was written and directed by Tyler Perry, is the most recent example. It’s trending on TikTok because of two viral waves: a video of Teyana Taylor’s resolute walk and individuals sharing their parents’ or grandparents’ emotional reactions to the ending. Both have received millions of views.
So, how can we tell whether there was a bump on TikTok? Although it’s not a precise science, we may compare TikTok’s Creative Center with Netflix’s audience statistics. On June 11, during the second week of the program, interest in the hashtag #Straw surged. After the first week, viewership usually declines, but Straw surprised everyone. In perfect harmony with TikTok activity, it soared by 93% in the second week after appearing with 25.3 million views.
New titles are not the only ones that receive a boost on TikTok. Older shows can suddenly make a comeback to the charts. As an illustration, consider The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, which saw a comeback in July 2023 as a result of rediscovered clips. As we have shown, Ginny and Georgia also experienced a significant uptick as a result of the recent TikTok videos that went popular.
Is TikTok a Monkey’s Paw for Netflix?
TikTok is a direct rival of Netflix as well as an amazing marketing tool. TikTok is the most popular app on mobile devices, while YouTube has been surpassing Netflix in terms of TV screen time, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge.
The business models are different in spite of the competition. Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, openly addressed this in March 2025, saying, “Creators are creating content at their own risk because YouTube doesn’t pay them up front.” Netflix’s audience is of a better caliber. Instead of wasting time, people are going there to watch. “I think we’re a better monetization model,” he continued.
Netflix Hopes to Replicate TikTok with a New Feed
Netflix is returning a vertical video feed, which is a scroll that displays show segments in a format similar to TikTok or Reels, as part of its most recent UI upgrade on TV and mobile devices. Longtime users might remember a previous comedy-focused project called Quick Laughs. A wider variety of genres will be covered in this updated version.
The new feed from Netflix, which looks a lot like TikTok, was shown off in a press demo. However, it noticeably missing social signals like likes, shares, and comments. TikTok’s FOMO and cultural velocity are driven by these signals, and it’s questionable if Netflix’s equivalent can match that level of interaction.
It’s unclear if Netflix’s in-app stream can actually increase traffic in the same manner that TikTok does.
