“The Queen’s Gambit,” Netflix ’s fictional drama about a female chess prodigy, has pulled off an unlikely gambit of its own: It’s prompted one of the biggest surges in the popularity of chess among Americans since the days of Bobby Fischer’s dominance in the 1970s.
The show has become Netflix’s most widely viewed scripted limited series, with 62 million households tuning in during the first 28 days after its Oct. 23 debut, the streaming company said. (Netflix now counts two minutes of watching as a view.) The impact is clear: Google search queries for chess doubled from October to November. Participation in online chess sites is soaring and it is getting harder to buy some chess sets.
“We’re setting a new record, for most new members in a single day, almost every day of November,” said Nick Barton, director of business development at Chess.com, a site for chess education and online play. That influx of more than 100,000 members daily is mostly beginners, Mr. Barton said. The newcomers have been mostly in the 18-to-24 demographic (as high as 60%), and slightly more female than usual, at 25% of new members compared with 22% among the site’s base of 46 million members. During the spring, pandemic lockdowns gave a bump to chess sites, he said. “The Queen’s Gambit” built on that to create a pop-culture sensation.
This post first appeared on wsj.com
