In the first four weeks of airing on Netflix, ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ series was watched by more than 62 million accounts and reached the very top of the list with the most popular ‘limited’ series with only one season. It was released on October 23 this year and broke all records. It dropped to the second place of IMDb’s top list as late as this week.

A ‘limited series’ refers to the content ending within one season, with no potential sequels.

‘The Queen’s Gambit’ series delighted millions of people worldwide, who watched a rise of a prodigy, Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) – from an orphanage to the top of the chess world. The plot follows a struggle of the lonely girl with herself, social norms, addiction… and represents a kind of homage to independent women.

It is interesting to note that the sales of chess boards have risen all over the world as a result of the craze for the series. This is most visible in online app stores, where chess apps are being downloaded massively.

The impact of ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ on a growing interest in chess is best confirmed by the popularity of Chess.com and mobile apps. Soon after the series was first aired, the app quickly reached the third place in the category of strategy games for iPhones in the USA and the second one in Apple online app store in the UK. According to App Annie, the app has jumped by 256 places in the USA and assumes the 62^nd position among all games.

Furthermore, Google announced that searches for ‘chess rules’ have been more frequent in the last four weeks than in the last nine years.

It is certain that chess, just like other social games, has turned vastly popular because of the quarantine which we will remember 2020 by, but this series has definitely added up to the appeal of the chess board, neglected in previous years.