All Squid Game Games In Order: Origins & Meaning Explained

All the Squid Game games are dark and twisted spins on a number of classic children’s pastimes, both Korean and international, and each one has a deeper layer of meaning than appears at first glance. Squid Game season 1 ends with the titular Squid Game, which is explained in the show’s opening scene, but there are many other innocent-turned-deadly games that fill the episodes in between. Notably, Gi-hun survived all the Squid Game games in order to win a huge sum of cash. Squid Game season 2 brings back some of the same games, but it also introduces some new ones as well.

There’s a reason the Squid Game games became such a talking point. In Squid Game season 1, a big part of the terror conveyed to the audience is the dissonance between how the games look and feel and what they actually are. Like the bright red and green colors of the show’s costumes, every Squid Game game conjures feelings of happiness and childhood, which are quickly smashed by the grim reality of what the contestants must do.

Recruiter’s Game: Ddakji

Season 1, Episode 1, “Red Light, Green Light” And Season 2, Episode 1, “Bread and Lottery”

Ddakji is the first of all the Squid Games games in order. Before Squid Game‘s gameshow begins, players are first tested by the organization’s recruiters, people who seek out those deeply in debt and prey on their desperation through the promise of reward for playing a simple game. In the show, the recruitment game Gi-hun plays is ddakji, also called ttakji.

Ddakji is arguably the most unfair of all the Squid Game games.

The Squid Game game’s origins come from a traditional Korean game similar in many ways to the popular 1990s game known as Pogs. The goal of Ddakji is for each player to flip their opponent’s tile on the ground by striking it with their own tile, made of folded paper. In the show, Gi-hun plays against the Squid Game recruiter, it’s clear that he’s at a disadvantage because the recruiter carries his own set of game pieces around.

The recruiter is obviously more skilled and prepared, but he acts like he and Gi-hun are on an even playing field. Ddakji is arguably the most unfair of all the Squid Game games, and that is seen when it returns in season 2. In many ways, this dynamic mirrors the capitalist corruption that Squid Game critiques. Indeed, at its very core, Squid Game is really about a society in which the poor have no real way to rise to an equal station as the rich, but where an illusion of equality is perpetuated nonetheless.

Round 1: Red Light, Green Light

Season 1, Episode 1, “Red Light, Green Light” And Season 2, Episode 3, “001”

Once Gi-hun and the other Squid Game contestants make it to the island, they start the games off with perhaps the most brutal one of all: Red Light, Green Light. This Squid Game game’s origins come from a beloved playground game. Red Light, Green Light is known by many names, including Statues, Grandmother’s Footsteps, and, in Korea, “Mugunghwa kkochi pieotseumnida.” The Korean name is also the song sung by the creepy killer doll in Squid Game, which roughly translates to “The Mugunghwa flower has bloomed.”

Symbolically, Red Light, Green Light makes a lot of sense as the first of the Squid Games as it shows the contestants in a truly traumatic fashion that if they step out of line even a little bit, they will die. It reinforces the theme of control that pervades the game, and it’s a sickeningly perfect game to whittle down the playing field as more than half of the Squid Game players are killed before the first round ends. Red Light, Green Light may also be the most memorable and influential out of all the Squid Game games.

It, of course, makes a return in the second season, though perhaps in not as shocking of a fashion since the audience already knows what to expect.

Round 2: Dalgona/Ppopgi

Season 1, Episode 2, “The Man With The Umbrella”

The second of the Squid Game games in order sees the contestants play in a competition involving ppopgi, also called dalgona. Squid Game‘s honeycomb toffee candy was once a popular Korean street food. The Squid Game’s origins come from a deal involving the ppopgi. Traditionally, if the person buying the dalgona managed to eat around the shape in the middle without breaking it, they would receive a second, free candy.

That’s the challenge given to the players in Squid Game, but the reward for successful eating is survival, and the punishment for failure is death. The terrifying delicacy and fragility of the game are well reflective of the Squid Game players’ state of mind at the time, after seeing so many be killed during Red Light, Green Light. They, like the candy, hang delicately in the balance, with even the slightest mistake meaning their destruction.

Round 3: Tug Of War

Season 1, Episode 4, “Stick To The Team” & Season 1, Episode 5, “A Fair World”

In round 3, the competition becomes team-based in Squid Games’ tug of war. This Squid Game game’s origins hold deep cultural significance in Korea, where variations of tug of war have been played in festivals and community celebrations for many years, especially in agricultural areas. Called juldarigi in Korea, tug-of-war type games are often played between the east and west sides of villages, with the winners supposedly earning a superior harvest that season.

The winners of this Squid Game obviously earn a different sort of good fortune. Thematically, the tug-of-war round begins a turn in Squid Game, making the competition directly between the players, rather than between the players and the organization. That shift sets up the factionalism and backstabbing that pervades the later episodes of the show. Indeed, after each of the Squid Game games, the players’ very morals and internal emotions are in an increasingly unpredictable tug of war.

Round 4: Marbles

Season 1, Episode 6, “Gganbu” & Season 1, Episode 7, “VIPS”

Round 4 is Marbles, which different players choose to play in different ways. Contestants match up in pairs, like Gi-hun and the old man Oh Il-nam, and one must win all the other player’s marbles before the time given expires. The contestant without any marbles at the end of the game dies. This Squid Game’s origins are some of the most ancient and longstanding in known history, dating back thousands of years to ancient civilizations like the Roman Empire. As shown in Squid Game episode 6, marbles can be played in a wide variety of different ways.

Marbles creates the most heartbreaking character deaths in Squid Game.

This Squid Game is primarily used as an opportunity to slow down the frantic pace of the action and give character relationships a chance to really develop in a high-pressure situation. It also forces the remaining players to take part in the violence of the games by effectively choosing for themselves which Squid Game contestants will die and which ones will live — but in a twisted way. This was also the most deceptive of the Squid Game games, as players initially thought they would be paired with — and not against — their chosen partners.

Marbles creates the most heartbreaking character deaths in Squid Game. Abdul Ali and Sang-woo pair up for this game, for example. When the players are told to pick partners, many of them choose someone they trust, and the game subverts their expectations. A husband and wife are forced to compete against one another in the Marbles round, with one of them losing their life to the game, and the other taking their own life afterward.

Round 5: Glass Stepping Stones

Season 1, Episode 7, “VIPS”

The only game of Squid Game season 1 that doesn’t explicitly have real-world origins is round 5, which sees the contestants making their way across a treacherous path of unpredictably safe and unsafe glass platforms. Still, this Squid Game is inspired by hopscotch and other similar hopping games, and its origins date back centuries to ancient India and Rome.

In the show, the game is used to represent how severely the competition is rigged against the players, as the Squid Game Front Man quickly turns out the lights when he sees one contestant who can tell the difference between tempered and untempered glass. Unlike all the other Squid Game games, the glass tile game is notably different for being designed like a full-blown, high-budget game show. However, this has the similar purpose of inducing horror through familiar elements from childhood, as audiences and players alike watched game shows on TV growing up.

In addition, the spectacle of the penultimate death game serves as a tease to the final event. The particular level of game play also encourages something that happens between games — for the players to kill one another. While players might fall because of splintering glass, some players choose to fall from the platform, and some take others down with them.

Final Round: Squid Game

Season 1, Episode 9, “One Lucky Day”

The series gets its title from the final Squid Game game, in which Gi-hun and Sang-woo battle for the ultimate prize. The Squid Game’s origins are similar to tag, but with more complicated rules. There are two teams — the offense, who must ultimately reach a specified space at the end of the playing field, and the defense, whose job is to stop that from happening. The game was very popular in Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, when many of the main Squid Game cast of characters would have been children.

Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has said in interviews that he chose the Squid Game as the final challenge and the title of the series because of its inherent violence. As Squid Game’s Front Man explained in the show, this best represented the aspects of modern society that he wanted to focus on. Indeed, this is the key difference that the final event has with the rest of the Squid Game games, none of which are as inherently physically confrontational as Squid Game itself.

Recruiter’s Game: Bread And Lottery

Season 2, Episode 1, “Bread and Lottery”

Bread and Lottery makes its debut in the first episode of the second season. Much like Ddakji, it’s a game that serves to recruit new players for the Squid Games. While it does not have an exact real-world analog, it’s much like games of chance provided by wealthy benefactors to those in low-income areas.

The Salesman buys 100 lottery tickets and 100 pastries, offering them to seemingly random people on the street. Given the way the Squid Games are typically structured, it’s likely the Salesman either knows which neighborhoods or which people to target. Many of the people he offers the food or the lottery ticket to appear to be of a lower socioeconomic class, or even unhoused.

Here, the point made by the Salesman appears to be that people should accept the “sure thing” of the pastry instead of gambling on the potential of a lottery ticket win. When people choose a lottery ticket and scratch it in hopes of getting a prize, but win nothing, he steps on the pastry they could have had instead right in front of them. It’s a relatively cruel form of recruitment.

Recruiter’s Game: Jokenpô

Season 2, Episode 1, “Bread and Lottery”

The English translation of Jokenpô is Rock Paper Scissors. This is a game used all over the world, though it is known by many different names, and it has ancient origins. The first recorded mention of the game dates to the Han Dynasty in China according to Chinese writer Xie Zhaaozhe. From China, the game made its way to Japan before spreading across the rest of the world.

The game is typically used by two people to make a decision. The two players form a fist, moving their hands in sync before revealing their choice of one of the titular three items with either a balled fist (rock), a flat and extended hand (paper), or the index and middle fingers forming a V shape (scissors). In the traditional form of the game, rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock. In instances where the players choose the same item, they continue playing until one of them wins. It is often played for “best two out of three.”

Squid Game creates a deadly variation of the game in the season two premiere though as the Salesman forces two people to play the game – with both hands – to determine which one of them will live. The game, however, is not part of the Squid Games themselves, but instead, used to intimidate and kill the people who are following the Salesman.

The Big Bang Theory has its own version of the game: Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock. It makes the game slightly more complicated for the fictional characters and references their love of Star Trek.

Recruiter’s Game: Russian Roulette

Season 2, Episode 1, “Bread and Lottery”

A big change for season 2 of Squid Game is that so many of the early games in the season are not inspired by children’s games. This game in particular is already deadly without Squid Game even needing to put its own spin on it.

Russian Roulette is traditionally played with a revolver. A single bullet is loaded into the chamber, which is then spun, and those playing take turns pulling the trigger – usually while pointing the gun at themselves. Variations of the deadly game involve pointing the gun at one another instead. Gi-hun and the Salesman play the game, and it is the Salesman who ends up losing his life as Gi-hun is able to get back to the Squid Game.

There is no hidden meaning here as both the Salesman and Gi-hun play the game straight. The game largely shows that both characters have the intention to be honorable and follow the rules.

There is some debate on the origins of the game. Its first written use is in Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov’s 1840 novel A Hero Of Our Time. Rumor has it that the murderous game got its origins in Russian prisons with guards forcing their prisoners to play the game.

Round 2: Six-Legged Pentathlon

Season 2, Episodes 4 And 5, “Six Legs” And “One More Game”

Six-Legged Pentathlon takes the place of the first season’s Dalgona.

The Pentathlon is not a children’s game either. Instead, it has its origins in Ancient Greece as part of the Olympics. It is a race consisting of five different events. While the traditional game includes the long jump, javelin throwing, disc throwing, a foot race, and wrestling, the Squid Game version is very different.

Once the players have gotten past the new season’s Red Light Green Light, Six-Legged Pentathlon takes the place of the first season’s Dalgona. Teams of five have their legs tied together, so they have to move together to each of the five mini games that make up the Squid Game’s version of their race.

First, players engage in their own version of Ddakji, which they would all likely know by now. The second mini game is Flying Stone, which involves using a stone to knock over another from about 10 feet away. It’s like a version of target practice that many different cultures have cultivated, whether that’s through axe throwing, archery, or something else.

The third game is then Gong-gi, which is the Korean version of Jacks, requiring players to catch pebbles, with them all eventually landing on the player’s hand to secure a win. The actual history of the game is unknown, but much like Rock Paper Scissors, cultures all over the world have their own version of the game.

The fourth game is Spinning Top. The player responsible for this stretch of the Pentathlon has to wrap a rope around a metal top and release it onto the floor. They win and move on to the next leg if the top successfully spins. The idea of spinning tops is prevalent in many ancient cultures. Evidence of their existence goes back 5,000 years according to archaeologists.

The final game is Jegi. It’s a traditional Korean game like hackeysack. In the real game, the object is to keep kicking the ball or toy into the air, keeping it from hitting the floor. In the Squid Games, every member of the team has to kick it in order for the team to complete the pentathlon.

The teams who fail are killed instead of moving on, making for a much deadlier version of the games. Like most of the season 1 games, it is the Pentathlon that calls back to childhood more than other games in the season. It is very much like a school Field Day or games that would have been played at recess by young children. Even the rainbow on the ground calls back to times of innocence on playgrounds.

Round 3: Mingle

Season 2, Episodes 5 And 6, “One More Game” And “O X”

This is the game in which characters have to make their biggest decisions about betrayal.

Mingle combines elements of games like Tag or Hide and Seek with that of a merry-go-round. Its exact origins, however, are muddled since it combines elements of so many other games. It does feature the music, mirrors, and colorful doors of a carnival-like atmosphere though.

The game begins with all the players on a spinning platform in the middle of the room. When the platform stops moving, a number is called out, and the players have to close themselves behind the doors at the edge of the room in groups of that particular number. Those caught outside the doors are killed. Those in rooms that do not correspond to the right number are killed.

It is very similar to the glass tile game of the first season of the show in that it is flashier and more dramatic than nearly all of the other rounds. It also, however, has elements of Marbles from the first season. This is the game in which characters have to make their biggest decisions about betrayal. It demonstrates that desperation often wins out over humanity.

The Special Round: Lights Out

Season 2, Episodes 6 And 7 “O X” And “Friend Or Foe”

It is hard to really call Lights Out one of the Squid Games. Instead, it is all-out murder. The game is much like the party game Assassin, in which players “kill” one another with fake guns, stickers, clothespins, pool noodles, or all manner of other objects until there is one person standing. Assassin usually takes place outside in the dark, making it harder to track down all of the players. It’s especially popular in a longer form on university campuses, so it being considered a “special round” in the dorms of the Squid Games makes it particularly apt.

Here, the players are all allowed to keep their forks at dinner after a vote for the prize ends in a tie. Players are then able to use those forks to kill those who do not share their decision. It’s not wrangled by the guards, and there are seemingly no rules in this particular game that ends with several people dead. It’s another way for the show to emphasize that greed and desperation can win out over empathy.

Because of the revolt that comes in season 2, the season finale never makes it to the titular Squid Game, leaving the world open for new events in a third season.

Why Squid Game Uses Children’s Games

Subverting Childhood Innocence Makes The Games More Entertaining For The Rich

On the surface, the reason that Squid Game uses children’s games is relatively simple. In Squid Game episode 9, “One Lucky Day”, Gi-hun asks the old man Il-nam a number of questions, but the most important is why Il-nam created the death games in the first place. Inspired by the games he played as a child, Il-nam created the games themselves as a means to entertain the mega-rich. He goes on to say that rich people and poor people have suffering in common, and that as a rich man, because he can buy anything he wants, he finds little joy in his life. Therefore, the Squid Game games are for the nostalgic entertainment of Il-nam and other billionaires.

One of the reasons the police don’t believe their stories is precisely because of their claims about children’s games.

However, under the surface, the reasoning behind using children’s games is a little more complicated but no less disturbing. It’s clear that the ultrarich don’t see poorer people as people in general, so they chose children’s games turned deadly to mock the Squid Game players. Additionally, it lures the contestants into a false sense of security, as shown during Red Light Green Light.

Another reason is the organization’s security, and how the strangeness of the games makes it difficult for escapees to be believed. When the players enact the third clause and leave the game, one of the reasons the police don’t believe their stories is precisely because of their claims about children’s games.

The Squid Games end up being the ultimate tool of manipulation to pit players against one another for the entertainment of the VIPs, while also displaying the rich’s contempt for their playthings. Squid Game episode 9 is a grim way to end the series, and it sends Gi-hun home with 45.6 billion Korean won (roughly $38 million) that remains unspent.

How Squid Game’s Games Compare To Alice In Borderland

Despite The Similar Premise The Games Are Very Different

Squid Game isn’t the only Asian drama based on deadly competition that’s become popular on Netflix, as Alice in Borderland often draws Squid Game comparisons thanks to having a similar battle royale set-up. However, there are several key differences between the games in the shows. While the individual games themselves are, of course, different, the thematic influences behind each show also means that the overall feel of each competition has less similarities than initially appears.

While the games in Squid Game are subversions of classic Korean children’s games, the games in Alice in Borderland are influenced both by video games and Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland books. While the Alice in Borderland games are just as difficult and deadly, they have their own unique flavor, meaning that both shows have a distinct appeal despite the seemingly similar premise.

However, there are some Alice in Borderland games that do seem like they’d fit Squid Game, such as the twisted versions of Tag and Hide-and-Seek. Ultimately, though, the aesthetic of both shows is very different too, with Alice in Borderland opting for a dystopian sci-fi tone that, at times, feels more reminiscent of the Saw franchise (such as in games like Light Bulb).