“Lovely Runner” Surged in Popularity with MZ Generation: High Viewership & Topicality

tvN’s Monday-Tuesday drama “Lovely Runner” has been proving its amazing topicality by capturing the attention of viewers, especially among the MZ generation.

In the recent episode, characters Ryu Sun-jae (played by Byun Woo-seok) and Im Sol (played by Kim Hye-yoon) confirmed their feelings for each other with a mutual kiss, but a surprise attack on Sun-jae by a villain shocked the audience. Especially as the identity of the villain was revealed to be a serial killer who targeted Sol’s life 15 years ago, curiosity about the next episode skyrocketed.

In the midst of this, “Lovely Runner” is being recognized as this year’s drama capturing the attention of the MZ generation. According to Good Data Corporation’s announcement on the topicality of TV-OTT K-dramas, “Lovely Runner” set a record for the highest first-week topicality among TV dramas broadcast in the past year.

It continues to break this record every week, currently holding a record-high topicality rate of 33% for the 4th week of April.

Immediately after the recent episode, the mentions of “Lovely Runner” on SNS platforms such as communities, Twitter, blogs, Naver Talk, and YouTube saw a significant increase compared to the previous week. YouTube comments alone increased by over 90% compared to the previous week, achieving a remarkable sevenfold increase in overall mentions compared to the average TVN Monday-Tuesday drama launched since the second half of 2023.

The viewership ratings for the 7th episode of “Lovely Runner” recorded an average of 5.3% in the Seoul metropolitan area and peaked at 6.3%, while nationally, it averaged 4.5% and peaked at 5.3%, competing fiercely for its highest ratings. 

In the target demographic of 20-49-year-olds, it recorded an average of 3.1% in the Seoul metropolitan area and peaked at 3.8%, while nationally, it averaged 2.7% and peaked at 3.2%, securing the top spot across all channels in the same time slot, including terrestrial channels.

Noticeably, the target viewership rating, which started at 1.2% in the first episode (nationwide), more than doubled in just three weeks, maintaining its position as the top show across all channels for four consecutive weeks. 

In terms of age demographics, “Lovely Runner” dominated the viewership from women in their 10s to 50s, captivating the hearts of female viewers. Moreover, the 7th episode achieved impressive ratings of 4.9% among women in their 20s and 4.1% among women in their 30s, setting records as the highest ratings for these demographics among weekday dramas aired in 2024.

From February 26th to May 2nd, the total accumulated views of related video contents for “Lovely Runner” reached 353,882,475 views as of May 2nd. (Aggregate of YouTube, TikTok, SMR, Instagram, Facebook PGC-UGC) 

Furthermore, the OST track “Sudden Shower” sung by Ryu Sun-jae, a member of the idol group Eclipse in the drama, which is a self-composed song reminiscing about his first love, Im Sol, debuted on the Melon TOP100 chart on May 2nd, proving its popularity.

In this way, “Lovely Runner” is not only dominating online topicality but also rewriting records for viewership ratings until 2030, truly becoming the drama sought after by the MZ generation. Fans even refer to “Lovely Runner” as a cure for Monday blues, eagerly anticipating its broadcast every Monday. The overwhelming popularity of “Lovely Runner” with its consistently remarkable topicality numbers warrants attention on its future trajectory.

Source: Daum