What "The Affair Was Just The Beginning" has done on Coupang Play

What happened

Coupang released the Coupang Play Series The Affair Was Just The Beginning at 8pm on Friday 31 July 2026. Coupang introduced it as “a runaway pile-up of a black comedy in which a popular influencer couple who have sold an image of a happy family, and the doctor couple next door in the middle of a bruising divorce suit, become tangled in a secret so unmanageable that even an affair looks trivial”.

In a press release dated 19 August, Coupang said the series “is holding firm at number one among Coupang Play’s popular titles for a third straight week, continuing an unrivalled run at the box office this summer”. The same release noted that episode six would be released at 8pm on Friday 21 August.

Herald Business reported on 23 August that the series had reached number one in all-time cumulative viewing among Coupang Play Series titles. The same article said viewing had risen 169 per cent since the first week after release, and that the user rating stood at 4.6 out of 5. It also reported that the series took first place for drama satisfaction in the third week of August in a viewer survey of OTT K-original content - OTT meaning over-the-top, the streaming services that deliver video directly over the internet. The same article said the series runs to eight episodes and that the finale is released on 4 September.

Why is it trending?

The numbers in circulation come from two places. One set is published by Coupang itself, the other is reported by the press. Coupang’s press release gave a ranking - number one among popular titles for three straight weeks - while Herald Business reported the all-time cumulative viewing record along with the 169 per cent figure and the 4.6 rating.

The 169 per cent figure refers to how much viewing grew after the first week of release. The 4.6 is a user rating on a five-point scale. Both values are figures Herald Business gave in its article of 23 August.

In the same article, Herald Business also reported first place for drama satisfaction in the third week of August in the viewer survey of OTT K-original content. With the finale of the eight-episode run still to come on 4 September, announcements and reports about the show’s records are still arriving.

What you need to know

• What the number one covers: the first place Coupang cited in its press release of 19 August is a ranking of popular titles inside Coupang Play. That release carried no absolute figures such as viewer numbers, and the ranking is not a broadcast television rating.
• 169 per cent: the figure Herald Business reported on 23 August, describing how much viewing grew after the first week of release.
• 4.6: the user rating given in the same Herald Business article, on a five-point scale.
• First for satisfaction: Herald Business reported that the series took first place for drama satisfaction in the third week of August in a viewer survey of OTT K-original content.
• All-time cumulative viewing: Herald Business reported that the series reached number one in all-time cumulative viewing among Coupang Play Series titles.
• Schedule: released at 8pm on Friday 31 July; episode six at 8pm on Friday 21 August; eight episodes in total, with the finale on 4 September.
• Watching from outside Korea: the South China Morning Post wrote on 7 August that the series streams on Viu.