Have you ever had the curiosity to know how the Korean Film industry came this far? How did they become a global phenomenon? What do you think about this industry? Did they get its fame overnight? No, this is the result of their years of hard work. Let me show you the Best K-Drama rankings by year. I am going to dedicate this article to those fans who want to know about those years of hard work and to those fans who want to explore the Best dramas of every year. I will try to give possible ideas of the eras that paved the way for modern-day dramas. Currently, without any doubt, we can say Korean Dramas have become a part of our day to day life. If you have any friend who watches K-dramas like you then I am sure you do have a Kdrama related conversation once in a day. So this is how Korean drama has influenced us.
So without any further delay allow me to tell you about the best dramas of the years.
2010-2015: The Golden Era Begins
Let’s start from 2010 because if we start from the very beginning then there will be no limit to it. I will give you one of the best dramas of every year.
2010: Secret Garden
The iconic drama Secret Garden is a fantasy romance drama. Kim Joo Won (Hyun Bin) and Gil Ra Im (Ha Ji Won) love each other but they don’t accept the fact because of their differences. They are different from each other both in personality and social status. One day they are lost in a jungle and find a restaurant in the midst of the jungle named Secret Garden. The owner of the restaurant gives them two separate bottles of wine and after drinking that in the morning they realize both of their souls are switched with each other’s body.
The storyline no doubt is so unique and the performance of the actors is even more amazing, which made it a successful drama and it reigned both in the box office and the hearts of the audience. And surely it paved the way for the fantasy romance genre.
2011: City Hunter
As I am writing Best K-Drama rankings by year, how can I miss 2011’s gem.
The high quality action scenes, balance of action and romance, engagement of plotline and political intrigue and actors’ charismatic performance especially the performance of Lee Min Ho made this drama a breakthrough in action thriller drama.
The revenge of Lee Yoon Sung (Lee Min Ho) is the main theme of the drama, when he gets to know about his father’s death and the reason behind it, he promises to get his father justice and take revenge for him.
During the execution of his plan, he meets Kim Na Na (Park Min Young) and both fall in love. And here the perfect blend of love and revenge also takes place.
With its thrilling plot, emotional depth, and top-notch action scenes this drama pushed all the boundaries of the contemporary action dramas and set a new milestone for the future action dramas.
2012: Reply 1997
Reply 1992 is the beginning of the reply series. This drama became a cultural sensation for its nostalgic and relatable storyline and for its innovative format.
This drama tells the story of a fangirl who is obsessed with her idol group. A teenage girl Sung Shi Won (Jung Eun Ji) loves the boyband H.O.T which is so relatable for all the k- pop fans. One of the reasons why the drama is such a success is its nonlinear storyline. The drama starts in 2012 and takes the audience in 1997 and gradually reveals the plot. The audience stays hooked on the drama to know what happened with the characters.
Again the universal themes show its charm with the dealing of love, true friendship and family. Which was a success and this made other dramas of this series a sure success too.
2013: The Heirs
Again the Lee Min Ho charm worked. After some groundbreaking successes like Boys Over Flowers and City Hunters Lee Min Ho became a global star which brought a lot of international fans and that’s how the heirs were adored both in Korea and outside of Korea. Also, the presence of the other actors like Park Shin Hye, Kim Woo Bin, Park Hyung Sik, Kim Ji Won, Krystal Jung and Kang Ha Neul made this drama a star-studded drama.
The Cinderella story, where a poor girl gets a rich boy who is obsessed with her, is liked by everyone. The love triangle added a bit more drama to enjoy. This high school love story is till date one of the best rom-coms according to some fans. This one was the Best K-Drama rankings by year 2013.
2014: My Love from the Star
My Love from the Star is one of the biggest dramas and the biggest hit of Korea. The unique love story of a human and an alien is the key to the success of this drama. Also, this drama made the two hot shots of Korea as the highest paid actor and actress together in one frame which attracted more and more fans.
An alien can not stay on this earth forever, then how will this love story be completed? This question made the audience stuck with this drama.
The love triangle is also present in this drama. The performance of the stars special Jun Ji Hyun, Kim Soo Hyun and Park Hae Jin is undoubtedly on top.
The fans of this drama are still hoping for a drama where the cast will be reunited.
2015: Kill Me, Heal Me
Cha Do Hyun(Ji Sung) is a third generation chaebol of a businessman family, through various traumas he develops DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). To get rid of it Do Hyun meets Oh Ri Jin (Hwang Jung Eum) who is a resident student of psychology and asks for her help secretly. On the other hand, Oh Ri Jin’s twin brother Oh Ri On (Park Seo Jun) is a writer who wants to bring the true face and the corrupted lives of the rich people to the world. For this reason, he follows Cha Do Hyun.
2016-2020: The Global Boom of K-Dramas
This era of Korean drama released some superhit dramas that brought global fame to this industry more than the previous years. Those dramas are:
2016: Descendents of the Sun
Best K-Drama rankings by year of 2016 has to be Descendents of the Sun.
The story is surely unique as it shows the love between the heroes of a country, a soldier and a doctor. One saves the country and one saves the life of the country’s people. But there’s a huge difference between them which makes them go away from each other.
The power fact of the drama apart from the storyline was the chemistry of the Song-Song couple both on-screen and off-screen. The story was unique, the characters were well chosen and the OSTs were superhits too, all these facts brought it a massive hit and gave it a place in the evergreen list.
2017: Goblin
This fantasy love story is till date celebrated by every Kdrama fan. Kim Shin (Gong Yoo) needs to find a human who can help him to lift his curse, safe to say to end his immortal life. Ji Eun Tak (Kim Go Eun) is that human. She didn’t know that lifting the curse meant killing him, and that’s why she was eager to do so as soon as possible. By living together they both fell in love and Eun Tak now doesn’t want to lift his curse.
The emotional love story compelled the audience to cry with them and pray for their love.
This drama also has some mesmerizing presentation of the beautiful landscape, the perfect setting of the past and present enriched the drama and set it free to fly to the hearts of the international fans.
2018: Mr. Sunshine
Best K-Drama rankings by year 2018 goes to Mr. Sunshine.
Mr. Sunshine is a historical drama that blends history, romance, politics and action altogether. The drama stands out as the best of 2018 for its international appeal, stunning performance of the star cast, the storyline, each character development and a relatable emotional presentation.
When the American expedition takes place in Korea a small boy boards the voyage of America and he comes back as Eugene Choi (Lee Byung Hun) who is the central character of the drama.
Again the drama was the center of attraction because the drama promotes a strong female lead Go Ae Shin, which was unique in Korean dramas, played by Kim Tae Ri.
2019: Crash Landing on You
Crash Landing on You is an international success. The whole world knows about the clash both North Korea and South Korea have for each other, but what happens when two important personalities of both countries fall in love with each other?
The Heiress of a conglomerate of South Korea and the official of North Korea meet by accident and then develop feelings for each other.
The drama is full of emotions like love, friendship and sacrifices which made it even more powerful than just the storyline. The transition from on-screen couple to real-life couple, Son Ye Jin and Hyun Bin made the drama more interesting.
There is hardly any fan who does not know about the drama or never heard of the drama.
2020: It’s Okay To Not Be Okay
This drama is more of a psychological drama than just a mere romantic love story.
This drama explores the themes of mental health, trauma, disorder and healing with a fairytale-like narrative. Moon Gang Tae (Kim Soo Hyun) has an elder brother, Moon Sang Tae (Oh Jung Se) who has autism, to take care of his elder brother Gang Tae became a nurse and works in a mental hospital. Gang Tae meets Koo Moon Young (Seo Ye Ji) who is a children’s storybook writer and gets connected to her as she becomes romantically obsessed with Gang Tae. Moon Young also has some mental issues that developed from a childhood trauma.
With this unique presentation, this drama became so popular among the audience of every level.
2021-Present: Dominating Streaming Platforms
Some dramas released in the later years of the pandemic changed the whole game and brought the industry an ultimate success. K-dramas are dominating all the global streaming sites breaking all the barriers of language, culture and even geography. Among all these, the best are:
2021: Squid Game
Let’s talk about the game changer. This drama dominated the world with its presentation. Surely it starts the ball rolling for Kdramas of every genre to give it a chance to be noticed. Dramas like The Hellbound, Sweet Home and All of Us Are Dead followed the path of The Squid game and became a massive hit on international movie sites. This drama announced the release of Squid Game Season 2 (December 2024) and Squid Game Season 3(2025) hoping for a bigger success.
2022: Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Woo Young Woo (Park Eun Bin) is the central character of the drama. She is young and has an IQ of 164 and has autism. Her autism is not a barrier for her, she became an attorney at a prestigious law firm. This underdog dominated the global site because of the unique thought of normalizing the sensitive issue of Autism.
It would be so wrong if we don’t talk about the performance of Park Eun Bin. This actor served an irreplaceable performance that portrayed the authenticity of the underrepresented community, nothing less or nothing exaggerated. Also, the supporting actor helped the drama to achieve this unpredictable success.
2023: The Glory
Bullying is not accepted in any society, it is a heinous crime. Still every year so many people get bullied without any reason and some are losing their lives and some get traumatized for life. The story also represents a woman who was horribly beaten by some school bullies when they were young. The story gains so much praise because of portraying the rise of that bullied girl who came to get revenge on those who made her life a living hell.
This story passes a message against the school bullies and gives a strong life message to the people who get bullied and decide to end their lives.
2024: Queen of Tears
The drama that broke all the previous records of viewership is The Queen of Tears. For blending love, romance, marriage and other emotions made this drama a solid hit. The married couple faces both emotional and professional problems and stands strongly by each other which makes the drama more deserving.
Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won the veteran actors’ combined performance helped to gain the drama more viewers than expected.
In conclusion, knowing about the best dramas through the years makes us understand the dominating genres of years. Those dramas are the strong pillars of today’s Hallyu industry. If they didn’t work that hard from the beginning then today’s dramas could have failed to achieve the present success. From romance to thriller, from emotion to comedy and from psychological to fantasy those dramas kept making variations to attract new and new audiences with their diversity. But the thing is all the dramas whether they were famous or not, all have their contribution equally to today’s popularity.
So, I Thank You, for the desire to know about all the years of hard work of all the actors, directors, producers and all those people who gave their best for their projects. I guess my article, Best K-Drama rankings by year, is worth your valuable time.