‘Squid Game’ By the Numbers: How Player 456 Took Over the World

From left to right: Park Sung-hoon, Kang Ae-shim, Lee Jung-jae, Hwang Dong-hyuk, Lee Byung-hun, Jo Yu-ri and Yim Si-wan attend the Squid Game Season 3 New York Premiere at The Paris Theater. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Netflix)

By Netflix

When Squid Game premiered on Netflix in 2021, it became a global phenomenon that transcended language barriers, shaped cultural conversation and broke records, quickly becoming the world’s biggest TV show. The highly anticipated final season returns, only on Netflix, June 27.

Read on as we pull back the curtain on the incredible fandom and share new and updated numbers on everything from record-breaking views and viral games to fan activations and the thousands of Pink Guards who presided over them. Plus, an unforgettable global tour, spanning New York’s Domino Park to Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, taking fans inside the games one last time. 

✦Read About the Season 3 Tour on Tudum✦

IGNITING A FANDOM

Squid Game has taken the world by storm, with nearly 600 million views to date across the first two seasons alone. Season 1 ranks as Netflix’s most popular show ever, while Season 2 smashed multiple records, including most views for a show in its premiere week and entering the Most Popular Non-English TV list in just three days, it quickly rose to become Netflix’s third most popular show of all time.

The show has captivated audiences and critics alike with both seasons certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Squid Game Season 2 is Netflix’s largest season on social ever, with the full campaign to date amassing over 19.5B owned global social impressions, even before Season 3 has launched. The Red-Light, Green-Light clip on TikTok is Netflix’s top-performing video of all time on the platform with 128.6M organic views.

On the App Store charts, multiplayer video game Squid Game: Unleashed climbed the ranks to become the #1 Free Action Game in 107 countries.

✦Download NY Event Photos Here✦

BRINGING FANS INTO THE GAME

On June 20, over 1,000 fans descended upon Domino Park in Brooklyn, NY, transforming it into an arena of thrilling games for the day. Attendees had the chance to relive the excitement of Squid Game’s most iconic challenges, including Mingle and Pentathlon, and were among the first to experience a new adrenaline-pumping game from Season 3—Jump Rope—supervised by towering Young-hee and Chul-su inflatables, while Pink Guards armed with water soakers stood ready to “eliminate” players, keeping adrenaline and suspense running high throughout the event. The experience was made even more memorable when Lee Byung-hun (the Front Man) and Director Hwang Dong-hyuk surprised fans with a special appearance at the event. In addition to New York, the Season 3 campaign will bring the games global with fan challenges popping up everywhere from Mexico to Saudi Arabia, Germany to Thailand to Taiwan and Australia. From legacy games to the debut of Jump Rope, fans are stepping into the world of Squid Game through immersive activations and events trying local twists on the series’ most iconic games. The final games will conclude with a celebratory parade where all of the icons from Season 1 to Season 3 will march through the heart of Seoul with fans and influencers attending from around the world.

Across Seasons 2 and 3, we hosted fan activations in more than 25 countries across 6 continents. Marquee events in 13 countries drew 6 million online and 66,400 in-person fans with nearly 47,300 participants in one-of-a-kind races, mazes and other games inspired by the series in anticipation of its finale.

Over 18,000 pink guards kept a close eye on fans around the world for marketing campaigns across the series. 

Squid Game: The Experience has opened in five cities around the world: New York City, London, Madrid, Sydney and Seoul — each experience has been sold out since opening, and based on current ticket sales, Netflix will welcome over half a million visitors by the end of this summer at Squid Game: The Experience locations around the world. Squid Game: Survive the Trials will invite fans to face off against the Front Man at Netflix House in Dallas later this year.

CULTURAL IMPACT

From binge-worthy to brand-worthy, Squid Game became the global sensation – setting trends and influencing culture. 

As Season 1 dominated screens and conversations worldwide, the series boosted interest in K-content, iconic moments went viral and became Saturday Night Live sketches, Vans slip-on sneakers sales increased nearly 8,000% and Halloween costumes outnumbered Google searches for any other film and TV character costume, shaping trends and solidifying its place in pop culture.   Season 2 leveled up the game. Netflix worked with over 100 partners to meet the fan demand for Squid Game-inspired gear —from Crocs to Puma, food and beverage  collabs from Johnnie Walker to Domino’s, and collectibles.

Duolingo also jumped in on the fun after seeing a 40% increase in Korean learners just after Season 1, underscoring the powerful connection between entertainment, culture and language learning. The platform leaned into the moment with a K-Pop inspired “bop” that hit 780K Spotify streams and sparked a dance trend on TikTok with over 77M TikTok videos created using the “Korean or Get Eaten” sound, daring fans to learn Korean, or else. 

The iconic Mingle Game song “Round and Round” has over 1B owned global social impressions. 

Across its three seasons, Squid Game featured 19 games reimagining childhood favorites into iconic competitions.

GOING FOR GOLD

Season 1 made Emmy® history with 14 nominations and 6 Emmy Award wins, including first-ever nominations and wins for a non-English language series. Season 1 also garnered 3 Golden Globe nominations and 1 win. Season 2 continued the momentum, earning a nomination for Best Drama Series at the 82nd Annual Golden Globes.

Squid Game was the first non-English series to win multiple SAG Awards, including wins for Lee Jung-jae and Hoyeon Jung.

The massively global Season 2 campaign was recently recognized at Cannes Lions, winning Silver in the 2025 Media Lions competition. Duolingo was also awarded Silver for its partnership with Netflix and Squid Game in this year’s competition.

The reality competition Squid Game: The Challenge also earned 3 Emmy nominations and 1 BAFTA TV Award.