Tving stages comeback with bold adult content, surging user numbers

'Even Coupang Play left it behind'

Tving, once the top domestic streaming platform, is making a comeback. The service had shed users to free-to-watch rival Coupang Play amid a wave of complaints that its content was too extreme or simply not worth watching — but subscribers are now returning in force. Analysts say Tving is on the verge of reclaiming second place in South Korea's streaming market behind Netflix.

After struggling with a lack of hit titles, Tving found its footing with the breakout success of "Dear X," a bold adult-rated original. Follow-up series "Yumi's Cells Season 3" and "Legend of the Military Cook" have since delivered back-to-back results, pushing the platform's monthly active users close to 9 million. The ongoing professional baseball season is adding further momentum.

According to data released Sunday by IGAWorks MobileIndex, Tving recorded the largest month-on-month increase in monthly active users among domestic streaming services in May, rising 14.40 percent to 8.81 million.

Tving was the only domestic streaming service to post a double-digit monthly gain. Having fallen further behind second-ranked Coupang Play, Tving added more than 1.1 million users within a month to close the gap sharply. New app installations also rose noticeably — nearly 100,000 users downloaded the Tving app for the first time in a single month, a surge of 31.47 percent.

Tving has been delivering a string of meaningful results amid intensifying competition in South Korea's streaming market.

According to Tving, "Yumi's Cells Season 3" topped the chart for new paid subscriber contributions every week from its premiere through its finale, and outperformed all previous seasons with growth of 226 percent compared to Season 1.

"Legend of the Military Cook," which picked up where that series left off, achieved the highest subscriber contribution in its first week of release among all Tving drama series released over the past three years.

"Dear X," widely regarded as Tving's best-performing original series, began airing on cable channel tvN on June 6 — an unusual extension to linear television — drawing fresh attention to the title. When it streamed exclusively on Tving, the adult-rated drama topped the chart for new paid subscriber contributions for six consecutive weeks and set all-time records among Tving originals for total viewing hours and series completion rate. The show is a bold melodrama thriller built around themes of destruction, marking a departure for the platform.

Tving CEO Choi Ju-hee said she is "strongly confident" the company will demonstrate a stable path to breakeven alongside sales growth starting in the second quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, Netflix held its commanding lead with 15.32 million users in May, up 3.58 percent from the previous month, while Coupang Play rose 0.14 percent to 9.11 million. Wavve climbed 5.83 percent to 4.12 million users, and Disney+ gained 7.32 percent to reach 3.71 million.