Happy Monday, welcome to the official start of 2021 and those resolutions, the last few days didnât count đ
I hope you are all doing alright, wherever youâre reading this from.
All our plans have been ruined once again, but for good reason, letâs keep each other safe.
Anyway, Câmere to meâŚ
Interesting
The Netflix Effect đşâ
Chess BoomâŚ
The Netflix original series The Queenâs Gambit has had immense success since itâs release back in October.
The mini-series has been particularly acclaimed for its cinematography and by chess fans for the fact that the chess was accurate, with many real games played out.
Garry Kasparov (widely considered one of the best players of all time) and the famous American chess coach Bruce Pandolfini, both served as advisors, making sure the boards were correct and being very specific about actors moving pieces naturally and using the clocks correctly, etc
Image: Netflix
A whopping 62 million households watched it in the first month, and it was the most-watched tv series on Netflix in 2020.
However, the so-called âNetflix effectâ refers to the widespread almost ripple effect of content that is popular, in this case, a spike in chess interest around the world.
Google saw a huge uptake in searches for and interest in Chess.
Here I took their data for Ireland in 2020, can you see the spike somewhere around October 23rd? (the shows release date)
Source: Google
Also, for the last 7 weeks in a row, the original book, âThe Queens Gambitâ, has been on the New York Times bestsellers list.
A remarkable 37 years since first being published in 1983.
In retail across the world there was a spike in sales too.
âA spokeswoman for eBay, Kara Gibson, said the company had recorded a 215 percent increase in sales of chess sets and accessories since the debut of the show in October. Of the different types of chess sets, wooden are the most popular and sell nine times more than plastic, electronic or glass on eBay, she said.â
(read more - New York Times)
AND throughout November Chess.com saw over 100,000 sign-ups to the site per day!
People have correctly pointed out that this âeffectâ is not at all new or unique to Netflix, over the last century so much of our culture and interests have been influenced by the media, movies and the large franchises that run them.
However, for the slightly cynical amongst you, people have begun to wake up to the influence that a massive publisher like Netflix has, one that perhaps should face some of the same criticisms that big tech like Google and Facebook have.
I am by no means saying that an interest in chess is a bad thing, an intellectual board game can only really be a positive for the world, but nevertheless, it is mad to see how much of a social and economic effect Netflix and their content can haveâŚ
Streaming sites are a closed eco-system whereby what gets recommended is entirely up to their algorithms, they hand curate what millions consume, arguably even more so than on social networks where at least the content (for better or worse) is almost entirely user-generated.
Just food for thought, Iâm remaining optimistic and I think it was really cool that a series could have such a positive effect worldwide.
Trending
What we searched for in 2020
Speaking about influence on the world, hereâs what was trending in Ireland according to Google Search.
Normal People topping our tv searches.
You can explore the trends of 2020 here - Google Trends
(naturally, the most detailed reporting is on the United States)
Smile đ
Saved đˇ
Think đ
During a nuclear explosion, there is a certain distance along the radius where all the frozen pizzas are cooked to perfectionâŚ
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