The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract Ep 5 has big ratings rise as loyal viewers remain and new ones arrive

Photo courtesy MBC

Episode 5 of The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract sees big ratings rise

South Korean drama The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract continued its ratings rise last night with a 1.0 percent rise in audience share over its previous episode.

According to Nielsen Korea, The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract, Episode 5 earned 7.4 percent of the audience, which is a substantial increase from Episode 4’s rating of 6.4 percent last Saturday night.

Audiences in Seoul also flocked to watch the historical-to-modern-day romance drama, with Episode 5 grabbing 7.2 percent of the audience in Seoul.

That is also an increase of 1.0 percent over its previous episode’s 7.2 percent share.

Both ratings are new personal bests for the MBC drama, and prove yet again not only how much current audiences are enjoying the show but that new audiences are joining it and then not leaving.

The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract cast and staff must be thrilled.

International viewers also rating the Korean drama high

It isn’t just Korean audiences that are enjoying the MBC drama either as international viewers are rating The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract incredibly high.

On Viki, where most international audiences are watching the show, it currently has an astounding 9.8 out of 10 rating.

Users of My Drama List, an Asian-drama focused website, are also ranking the historical fantasy romance drama an 8.5 out of 10 which, believe me, is a high score from users of that site.

In fact, the only site where users are downrating The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract is on IMDB where the Korean drama is currently rated a low 7.9 out of 10.

But, as that site is known to feature ratings that are manipulated by gangs of trolls that become “offended” by some minor thing in a TV show or film, taking IMDB ratings seriously is probably not something anyone should do.

The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract stars Lee Se Young and Bae In Hyuk and airs every Friday and Saturday at 21:50 (KST) on MBC in Korea, with Viki and several other streaming platforms streaming it around the same time.

The Korean drama’s next episode will air tonight at the same time, so let’s see if it continues its meteoric ratings rise. Fingers crossed, eh?

Because this one really is one of the best romance dramas of 2023.

About Michelle Topham

Brit-American journalist based in Austria, former radio DJ at 97X WOXY, and Founder/CEO of Leo Sigh. I've covered K-drama, K-pop, J-pop, anime, manga and music news for over a decade.