K-Dramas of 2025: Global reach and intimate storytelling define the year’s top 10

Korean dramas continued to reshape global television in 2025, a year marked by unprecedented investment from streaming platforms and a persistent push to balance local storytelling with international appeal. Time magazine’s year-end spotlight on the 10 best K-dramas of 2025 highlights a cohort of completed series that illustrate the genre’s range—from intimate slice-of-life dramas to high-stakes political thrillers and bold historical takes. The list underscores how the industry’s expanding global footprint sits beside rising domestic pressures, including steeper production costs, shorter episode counts in some titles, and a concerted effort to protect intellectual property while continuing to attract international audiences.

The year’s context matters: Netflix and other U.S.-based streamers increased their bets on Korean entertainment, while Disney signaled a deepening commitment to Asian Pacific content as global franchises. In October, CJ ENM announced a major multi-year partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to co-produce Korean dramas, a pact that reflects both the cross-border appetite for Korean storytelling and the shifting economics of production. Yet the same dynamics have posed challenges for domestic players, with production fees rising and some firms scaling back on the number of new series, even as multi-season formats gain traction in the market. Creators have responded by exploring genre blends and more universally accessible storytelling, while still prioritizing work that reflects Korean culture and lived experience. Against this backdrop, 2025 produced some of the year’s most acclaimed work in slice-of-life, thriller, romance, and historical genres.

Here are the 10 best K-dramas of 2025, in descending order, all of which had completed their runs within the year. The list also notes ongoing titles and near-term bets that could shape 2026 as the industry continues its rapid evolution.

No. 10 Trigger (Netflix). Trigger stands out as a taut action thriller anchored by a police protagonist, Lee Do, played by Kim Nam-gil. The series centers on a Korea grappling with gun violence in a social climate where weapon access is a flashpoint for public safety and policy debates. Writers and director Kwon Oh-seung use the premise to probe how societies respond when fear and normalization collide, creating a tense, thought-provoking narrative that also emphasizes procedural craft and character complexity. As a reflective work on public risk, Trigger invites viewers to consider the gap between policy intention and everyday consequences, delivering sustainably suspenseful episodes without sacrificing its moral center.

No. 9 Spirit Fingers (Viki). A vivid, whimsical coming-of-age drama, Spirit Fingers follows Song Woo-yeon, a shy high schooler who enters a world of art and self-expression through a club that values passion over perfection. Park Ji-hu anchors the series with a performance that captures the joys and insecurities of adolescence as Woo-yeon navigates friendships, first love, and a growing sense of self. The drama preserves the visual sensibility of its manhwa source while keeping the tone buoyant and hopeful, a balance that resonated with young and older viewers alike.

No. 8 The Tale of Lady Ok (Kocowa). A Joseon-era drama that centers a female lawyer who secretly lives under a false identity, The Tale of Lady Ok explores class, gender norms, and the abuse of power through a tightly wound legal-survival arc. Lim Ji-yeon delivers a magnetic performance as the lead, with a plot that moves between romance, intrigue, and courtroom drama across 16 episodes. The show’s strength lies in its refusal to confine its heroine to royal-centric storytelling, instead spotlighting a society where legal advocacy and personal resilience intersect with social constraint.

No. 7 Study Group (Viki). A lighter, more buoyant entry, Study Group follows Yoon Ga-min, a high school student who dreams of college while navigating a school known for its crime-linked ties. The series blends action-oriented set pieces with a self-aware sense of humor, nodding to spy and caper traditions while maintaining a tenderness in its found-family narrative. With a lean 10-episode arc, the show earns its warmth by foregrounding its ensemble and the evolution of its central friendship group, offering a surprisingly poignant meditation on belonging and perseverance.

No. 6 Resident Playbook (Netflix). A hospital-centered drama with heart, Resident Playbook is a spin-off of the Hospital Playlist universe that centers four residents in a bustling obstetrics and gynecology department. The show uses a character-driven approach to explore burnout, teamwork, and the realities of medical life, while tying its narrative to broader social themes such as Korea’s birthrate crisis. Cameos and crossovers with beloved Hospital Playlist figures deepen viewer attachment, and the series balances medical drama with character warmth and moments of levity that broaden its emotional appeal.

No. 5 Our Unwritten Seoul (Netflix). A twin-swap premise provides the engine for a sensitive portrayal of grief, disability, and workplace challenges. Park Bo-young leads as Mi-ji, with her twin Mi-ri navigating a parallel life in Seoul and rural settings. The drama foregrounds mental health, family dynamics, and systemic pressures, weaving a story of resilience and human connection across its multi-layered narrative. A standout supporting performance from Park Jin-young adds a growling, living texture to the legal and personal life threads that interlace the siblings’ journeys.

No. 4 Tempest (Hulu). A political thriller with a prominent romantic throughline, Tempest pairs Jun Ji-hyun with Gang Dong-won in a story that unfolds around a high-stakes murder within a presidential campaign. The series integrates geopolitical tension with intimate stakes, including a notable collaboration with American actors that broadens its global resonance. While some plot threads verge toward complexity, the core romance and the ethical questions it raises keep the drama grounded and engaging for a wide audience.

No. 3 Squid Game Season 3 (Netflix). The third season of Squid Game builds on the franchise’s central conceit: the brutal realities of life under late capitalism. Gi-hun’s evolving role—no longer the original everyman—continues to probe class and power while offering glimmers of hope amid existential peril. The season remains true to the series’ DNA, balancing sharp social critique with moments of humanity that underscore its narrative journey and dramatic stakes.

No. 2 Way Back Love (Viki). Kim Min-ha anchors this emotionally charged drama, in which a chance intersection with the Grim Reaper forces a young woman to confront grief and move forward. The story unfolds over six episodes, mixing flashbacks with present-day decisions as it tracks Hee-wan’s painful yet cathartic path from despair to renewal. Adapted from a webtoon, Way Back Love is praised for its deft handling of loss, healing, and the limits—and possibilities—of love across time and memory.

No. 1 When Life Gives You Tangerines (Netflix). The year’s top pick is a sweeping, four-season saga that follows Ae-sun’s life from Jeju Island’s poor beginnings to a life shaped by love, work, and family across decades. Centered on the generations around Ae-sun, the drama weaves together a grand family tapestry with a strong sense of place and culture. Directors and performers collaborated on a bold, ambitious production that many viewers saw as a landmark in Korean storytelling for its breadth, emotional terrain, and social relevance. The cast, which includes IU, Park Bo-gum, Moon So-ri, Park Hae-joon, and Yeom Hye-ran, anchors a narrative that is as expansive as it is intimate, a testament to the evolving scope of contemporary K-dramas.

The year’s top 10 reflects a spectrum of what helped propel Korean television to the forefront of global entertainment. Slice-of-life dramas that linger on small, humane moments sit alongside thrillers that ask how societies handle fear and power. Historical pieces challenge hierarchies with modern sensibilities, while romances and comedies insist that relationships—and families—remain the core of human storytelling. The list also points to the ongoing tension between global reach and local specificity, as producers seek to retain Korean cultural specifics even as they court universal appeal.

Beyond the ranked lineup, the broader industry picture in 2025 included notable partnerships and strategic investments. Netflix’s continued expansion into Korean programming helped sustain a robust export market, while Disney’s push into Asia-Pacific content signaled a shift toward global franchises built on regional storytelling. The CJ ENM-Warner Bros. Discovery collaboration underscored a trend toward cross-border production alliances designed to share resources, talent, and IP across markets. At the same time, rising production costs and a crowded streaming landscape created a pressure point for domestic studios, urging creators to innovate with shorter runtimes and more serialized formats. As a result, audiences saw a mix of standalone seasons and multi-season arcs, with a few titles intentionally crafted to retain core Korean cultural elements even as they tested broader international appeal.

With Dynamite Kiss still airing, and other titles like Park Seo-joon’s Surely Tomorrow on Prime Video and Season 3 of Taxi Driver continuing to captivate audiences, industry watchers anticipate an even richer landscape in 2026. The year’s standout list demonstrates not only the enduring popularity of K-dramas but also their capacity to adapt—balancing local specificity with global storytelling that resonates across cultures and languages. In this evolving ecosystem, Korean creators continue to produce some of the world’s best television, a trend that likely will continue as the 2020s unfold.