‘KPop Demon Hunters' shows how kids matter more to streaming than adults

Mint

17 hours ago

If you're over 30, you've not watched the most popular animated movie in the world right now. Unless, of course, you are a parent. There exists a vast, brightly lit playground of content where grown-ups without children never wander, and within that candy-coloured wilderness, KPop Demon Hunters has planted its glitter-tipped flag. Six weeks after its 25 June release, the Netflix original became the most-watched animated film in the platform's history.
This matters not merely because of the numbers (though those are gargantuan, with 158.8 million total views placing it fourth among all of Netflix's English-language films) but because it proves that the 'adult market" is no longer the beating heart of global entertainment. The children, the tweens, and the fervid fan-armies are in charge. The rest of us can either watch, or be left out of the conversation entirely. We may be one pop-chorus away from singing Baby Shark at cocktail parties just to fit in.
What KPop Demon Hunters truly signals is that the 'mature" adult market is now a minority demographic in global media consumption. Our prestige-TV discussions, our Oscar-bait dramas, our limited-series think-pieces? They are but niche pursuits compared to the universal reach of a K-pop anthem paired with demon-slaying choreography.
Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans for Sony Pictures Animation, KPop Demon Hunters is exactly what its title promises, and then some: a neon mash-up of K-drama emotionality, splash-pages, anime fight-physics, and arena-style concert lighting. The story follows Huntr/x, a girl-group whose day job is selling out stadiums, and whose night shifts involve slicing through supernatural baddies with otherworldly flair. Their power source? 'Honmoon" energy—something that is part spiritual essence, part chart-topper adrenaline.
The set-pieces alternate between the spectacular (stadium pyrotechnics and demon-portal vortexes feel cut from the same storyboard) and the slyly absurd. The action moves like choreography, every punch a pirouette, every back-flip a key change. The visual aesthetic owes a significant debt to the Spider-Verse movies, and the hyper-stylised cuts of Korean music videos, but the blend is seamless. The K-pop aesthetic appears to be made for fantasy combat, and vice versa.
K-pop isn't wallpaper here: it's plot, propulsion, and in-story weaponry. The soundtrack boasts songwriting royalty (TEDDY, Danny Chung, IDO) and performances from EJAE, REI AMI, and TWICE's Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung. The album itself hit No.2 on the Billboard 200, with over 1.5 billion streams globally. The film's biggest hit, the single Golden, didn't just go viral; it topped the Billboard Global 200 for three weeks and became the first all-female group track to hit No.1 on the Billboard Streaming Songs chart. I'd honestly be surprised if the track doesn't get nominated for an Oscar next year.
It is rare for critics to agree so enthusiastically on something pitched squarely at younger audiences. Yet KPop Demon Hunters wears a 97% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes like a sparkly tiara, while audiences give it a hearty 92%. The reviews have been uniformly enthusiastic.
If you want proof that the throne has shifted to the nursery, here it is: Netflix's all-time top 3 English-language films are Red Notice (230.9 million views), Carry-On (172.1 million), and Don't Look Up (171.4 million). Most recently, Adam Sandler sequel Happy Gilmore 2 swung on to the screen with a record-breaking 46.7 million views in its first three days, marking Netflix's biggest US opening ever for a film. Yet here's the kicker: while Sandler's sequel shot out of the gate like a golf ball on fire, KPop Demon Hunters didn't just launch; it stayed—its momentum unrelenting as children (and their parents) fire up the film for repeat viewings. By the time you read this, it should easily have overtaken Don't Look Up, a multi-starrer headlined by Leonardo DiCaprio. Will it go on to hit No.1? Don't bet against it.
Once upon a time, 'children's entertainment" was a ghetto, brightly coloured, often simplistic, and easily ignored by anyone outside its target age group. Today, shows and films aimed at young audiences far surpass the numbers ratcheted up by critically acclaimed prestige dramas. From Bluey memes to the Frozen sing-along industrial complex, kids' culture now seeps upward, dictating what trends, what gets made, and what dominates charts.
KPop Demon Hunters is the apotheosis of that shift: slick, savvy, and with music that lodges itself into adult ears despite themselves. It's engineered for fandom engagement as well as social media performance. Netflix doesn't just have a hit; it has a cross-platform juggernaut whose memes are multilingual.
The not so secret ingredient here is repeatability. Beloved prestige shows like Better Call Saul or The Bear might inspire one or two methodical rewatches among their faithful, but they are, by nature, slow-burn feasts. Animated blockbusters, on the other hand, are espresso shots of colour and melody designed for relentless looping. Parents hit 'Play Again" because the tiny, tyrannical overlords demand it. One household, one account, can clock a dozen views in a fortnight, and each is another gleaming tick in Netflix's rankings. The numbers don't just reflect reach. They reflect obsession, and that's where the grown-up market simply can't compete.
The pint-sized popstars of Huntr/x are, therefore, not only hunting for demons. They're out for dominance, and they've already won. We will have to recalibrate ourselves. We're stepping into an age where the mainstream is defined by those still in school. The kids are holding the remote now, and the beat drops when they say so.
Raja Sen is a screenwriter and critic. He has co-written Chup, a film about killing critics, and is now creating an absurd comedy series. He posts @rajasen.