With Netflix set to release Cobra Kai's eagerly anticipated final season, it's almost easy to forget the esteemed sequel series was formally a YouTube original up until season 3. It's skillful expansion of the 80s classic cult The Karate Kid quickly and thoroughly stole the hearts of old fans and new generations, so much so that Cobra Kai's behind-the-scenes dealings became unmemorable background noise if not a piece of information that some had no knowledge of. But, if YouTube had not given up its rights to the series, Cobra Kai's trajectory could have ended up entirely different from what audiences know of it today.
Netflix has now come to announce Cobra Kai's concluding sixth season after taking the reins from YouTube and nearly completing the storylines of the principle stars of 1984's The Karate Kid. Cobra Kai season six will finalize the decades long character arcs of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), and the countless new and returning roles of The Karate Kid canon. Such an effort may have been achievable for YouTube, but Netflix has since proven where the series' true home should be to foster the Cobra Kai sensation.
Cobra Kai Moved To Netflix To Make Season 4 Happen
Despite the promising direction of the series, YouTube bartered their exclusive rights to Cobra Kai in 2020 to double down on the platform's unscripted content endeavors in the areas of music, celebrities, and creator-focused originals. Because Cobra Kai fell outside of YouTube's company strategy and other scripted content at YouTube had been falling to cancelation left and right, Cobra Kai needed an outlet to secure its future, especially seeing it was refused commission past a third season. SonyTV, Cobra Kai's distribution studio, was thus compelled to shop around for an outlet that could comfortably and devotedly order new seasons.
Granted, it wasn't hard for SonyTV to find willing and wanting outlets, as Cobra Kai's first two seasons were record-setting - season 1 alone made the show the sixth-most Google-searched TV series in 2018. Netflix jumped at the bait and won out to other streaming services, which not only secured a Cobra Kai season 4 and beyond but promised an ever-growing audience base far more fitting than YouTube's. Netflix had originally lost out on the opportunity to house Cobra Kai at its inception - to none other than YouTube - but this time, Netflix snatched the series up and ran with it all the way until it became an exquisitely complete series success.
Why Cobra Kai Is Better On Netflix
At the very least, the move to Netflix opened up Cobra Kai's reach; comparatively, season 1, episode 1 topped 55 million YouTube views when it was housed there, while season 4, episode 1 dominated in its first three days on Netflix with 120 million hours of watch time and was the second-most watched show in the world on Netflix in its first month. While the move to Netflix may not have changed much in of creation or story, Cobra Kai is decidedly better on Netflix because it reached and was received by a much larger audience, domestic and global alike.
Because the series will end on such a high note with Netflix's viewers, there also exists the possibility for Netflix to utilize Cobra Kai's success to set up new Karate Kid spinoffs. YouTube's content strategy wouldn't have been able to ideate the expansion of The Karate Kid universe quite like Netflix could, and this opens up the opportunity for The Karate Kid franchise to feature more of Cobra Kai's narratives somewhere in the future. It's very likely that where Cobra Kai ended up and where it could lead in the future of the franchise was far beyond the scope of YouTube, and maybe that ended up being for the better.