Blue Dragon Series Awards 2026 Winners: Kim Go-eun's Daesang, Squid Game's Park Hae-soo Wins Best Actor

BLUE DRAGON SERIES AWARDS · 2026
Kim Go-eun Cried. Squid Game’s Park Hae-soo Won Best Actor.
The full winners list from Korea’s biggest streaming awards night

📺 Kim Go-eun accepts the Daesang (Grand Prize). Clip: KBS official broadcast.

On July 31, 2026, the 5th Blue Dragon Series Awards lit up Paradise City in Incheon — and Korea’s biggest OTT night handed its top prize to Kim Go-eun, who broke down in tears on stage. But the moment that sent international fans straight to the group chat? Squid Game’s Park Hae-soo winning Best Actor — and casually announcing a second baby is on the way.

Here’s the full winners list, plus the context Korean viewers caught that most global recaps skipped over.

The Daesang: Kim Go-eun’s Tearful Night

The Daesang (Grand Prize) is the single biggest honor of the night. It isn’t tied to one category — it crowns the year’s standout across every streaming drama and variety show. This time it went to Kim Go-eun, for a run that included Netflix’s Eun-jung and Sang-yeon, The Price of Confession, and Yumi’s Cells.

Actress Shin Min-a read her name, and Kim Go-eun walked up already crying. Through the tears she thanked the seniors she’d learned from over the years, and said she hoped to become that kind of mentor herself one day. If you know her from Goblin, Yumi’s Cells, or Little Women — yes, that Kim Go-eun. And yes, this is a huge one for her.

Best Actor & Actress: Park Hae-soo and Shin Hye-sun

Best Actor went to Park Hae-soo for the ENA thriller Scarecrow, where he played a detective chasing a 30-year string of murders. Most of the world knows him as Cho Sang-woo — Player 218 — from Squid Game. So watching him take a lead acting trophy at a major Korean ceremony hit different for global fans.

He beat a stacked field that included Hyun Bin and Kim Woo-bin. Then he dropped the news of the night: his second child arrives next month. He dedicated the award to co-star Lee Hee-joon, got choked up, and basically told his first kid, “Dad won.”

Best Actress went to Shin Hye-sun for the Netflix series Lady Dua. She said she truly hadn’t seen it coming — her mind went blank at the mic — and promised to keep growing as an actor.

Best Series: A Kitchen Soldier and a Dating Show

Best Drama went to the TVING original The Kitchen Soldier Becomes a Legend (취사병 전설이 되다), the night’s biggest winner with three trophies — Best Drama, Best Supporting Actor (Yoon Kyung-ho), and the OST Popularity Award.

Best Variety went to Netflix’s dating show Motae Solo but I Want to Date. Here’s the twist global fans will clock: Culinary Class Wars Season 2 was nominated in this category — and didn’t win. On a night packed with streaming heavyweights, the dating show edged out the Netflix cooking juggernaut.

Supporting, Rookies, and the Variety Winners

  • Best Supporting Actor: Yoon Kyung-ho (The Kitchen Soldier Becomes a Legend)
  • Best Supporting Actress: Park Bo-kyung (Lady Dua)
  • Best New Actor: Kim Jae-won (Yumi’s Cells 3)
  • Best New Actress: Jeon So-young (Girigo)
  • Best Variety Star: Kim Won-hoon (SNL Korea 8) & Kim Sook (Driver: The Rival)
  • OST Popularity Award: An Yujin of IVE (The Kitchen Soldier Becomes a Legend)
  • Popularity Star Award: Go Youn-jung, Byeon Woo-seok, Yoo Jae-suk, Lee Su-ji

Why K-Pop Fans Should Care

Two K-pop names jumped out. IVE’s An Yujin took the OST Popularity Award for her song on The Kitchen Soldier Becomes a Legend — a reminder of how often idols now carry drama soundtracks. And on the mic all night was YoonA of Girls’ Generation, hosting for a fifth straight year alongside Jun Hyun-moo. Lovely Runner’s Byeon Woo-seok and national MC Yoo Jae-suk also picked up Popularity Star Awards.

🇰🇷 The Korean Side vs 🌍 The Global Side

🇰🇷 In Korea, the headlines were Kim Go-eun’s Daesang and Park Hae-soo’s baby announcement — and a genuinely warm room. Korean coverage leaned hard into the real-life couples in the audience (more on that in our moments recap) and the feeling that streaming series have fully arrived as prestige TV.

🌍 Globally, the story is simpler: Squid Game’s Sang-woo won Best Actor, and Goblin’s Kim Go-eun took the top prize. For a lot of international viewers, this ceremony doubles as a watch-list — a curated map of the year’s best Korean OTT titles they haven’t gotten to yet.

📊 The gap: Korean fans follow these actors across a decade of work; global fans usually meet them through one breakout title. So when Park Hae-soo wins, Korea sees a respected, stage-trained actor finally landing a lead trophy — while the world sees “the Squid Game guy.” Both are true. That’s the fun of it.

Why It Matters

The Blue Dragon Series Awards only launched in 2022, built specifically for the streaming era — Netflix, TVING, Disney+, Coupang Play, Wavve and more, all judged side by side. In just five years it’s become the clearest annual signal of where Korean OTT is heading. And 2026’s message is loud: the platforms are the new prestige, and Korean series are setting the pace.

FAQ

Is this the same as the Blue Dragon Film Awards?
No. The Blue Dragon Film Awards honor theatrical movies (held every November). The Blue Dragon Series Awards honor streaming dramas and variety shows. Same “Blue Dragon” brand, completely different worlds.

Where can I watch the winning shows?
They’re spread across platforms — The Kitchen Soldier Becomes a Legend on TVING, Lady Dua and Motae Solo but I Want to Date on Netflix. Availability varies by region.

Who hosted?
Jun Hyun-moo and Girls’ Generation’s YoonA — together for the fifth year in a row.

📌 Key Details
  • Event: 5th Blue Dragon Series Awards
  • Date: July 31, 2026
  • Venue: Paradise City, Incheon
  • Broadcast: KBS 2TV (live)
  • Hosts: Jun Hyun-moo & YoonA
  • Daesang: Kim Go-eun
  • Top winner: The Kitchen Soldier Becomes a Legend (3 awards)

💬 Jamie’s Take

I’ll admit it — I teared up a little watching Kim Go-eun tear up. But the moment I keep replaying is Park Hae-soo announcing baby number two mid-speech, completely overwhelmed. This is the guy the entire planet watched play one of the coldest characters in Squid Game, and here he is, voice cracking, talking about his kids. That’s what a lot of global audiences miss about these Korean ceremonies: they’re not slick and over-rehearsed. They’re a room full of people who actually know each other, being soft in public. And that’s exactly why I stay up to watch.

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