BEIJING, Feb. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — iQIYI-presented series The Knockout, which concluded on Feb. 1, received raving reviews from the audience and broke multiple records across platforms during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday. The show enjoyed a peak iQIYI content popularity index of 11,800, which broke the two-year record previously held by My Heroic Husband and makes the crime series the show with the highest popularity index in the history of iQIYI.

According to data released by iQIYI Research Centre, during the CNY holiday, the popularity of The Knockout drove a 33% increase in users’ viewing hours on iQIYI’s drama channel. On Jan. 29, iQIYI app topped the App Store rankings in multiple categories, outperforming other popular apps such as WeChat and Douyin.

Capturing the audience with its thrilling story, tight plotlines, well-developed characters, and high production quality, The Knockout breaks the conventional perception typically associated with crime dramas. Since the CNY holiday, the 39-episode drama series, which weaves in scenes from 2000, 2006, and 2021 to depict the two-decade struggle between good and evil, continues to top the rankings charts compiled by prominent third-party data platforms in China. Additionally, the drama recorded strong performance in TV broadcast and reached a record high of 3.8% in its real-time peak viewership index on CCTV-8, the premier channel for drama viewing in China.

The Knockout also received critical acclaim from viewers. As of Feb. 7, the show attracted over 460,000 reviews from users on Douban, an influential Chinese media review platform, where close to 90% of the reviewers rated the show four (out of five) stars or above, resulting in a peak rating of 9.1/10 for the show. Over 3,580 trending topics on major Chinese social media platforms featured the popular series, and the related discussions amassed over 100 million views. The show’s popularity also generated much attention to its featured elements. From the style and mannerism of particular characters to the lines spoken or even the food featured, the public showed great interest in deepening their connection to different aspects of the show.

DAI Ying, Senior Vice President at iQIYI and the General Manager of the Original Drama Division, said during an interview that “The strong user reviews and viewing performance we saw on The Knockout set a solid foundation for iQIYI for the rest of the year. The show is also a confidence-booster for the industry overall: for industry participants, seeing the popularity and influence a piece of high-quality content can achieve marks the beginning of a virtuous cycle.”

CONTACT: iQIYI Press, press@qiyi.com