10 Shows Like ‘The Squid Game’ That Are Worth Watching
Squid Game didn’t invent its style of deadly competitive pranks, which was first popularized back in 2000 by Kinji Fukasaku’s kids-killing-kids Battle Royale, but it was certainly smarter and sharper in its social satire, and also noisier: Toys, games, Halloween costumes, and more have all sprung from the Squid Game font. (Interestingly, we can’t even enjoy the brutal takedown of late capitalism without rushing out to buy some of the merch.)
With The Squid Game already coming to an end (at least until a potential reboot led by David Fincher ) and the next Hunger Games movie still a year or so away, you might be on the hunt for a new high-stakes obsession. Here are 10 possibilities. (Just try to enjoy them while they’re fictional: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reportedly considering an immigration reality show in which refugees compete for green cards, so we’re pretty close to a real-life Squid Game .)
Show 8 (2024, mini-series)
A premise that might have seemed overly edgy a decade ago now seems like a pretty good distillation of our current capitalist hellscape — and, as a rule, South Korean TV shows and movies are ahead of the curve when it comes to addressing the exploitative nature of late capitalism. Here, eight strangers are chosen to participate in a game in which they are locked together in a building and isolated on a different floor each night. They earn money for every minute they spend playing the game, but all of their supplies must be purchased with the money they win at an extreme markup. At first, the participants pool their resources so that everyone gets more money — until they learn that the people on the top floors get more. Then things get ugly. You can stream The 8 Show onNetflix .
3% (2016 – 2020, four seasons)
It would be tempting to see this as a metaphor for the American Dream, but of course this is a Brazilian show, and inequality wasn’t invented in the United States — we’re just particularly good at it. In The 3%, impoverished young Inlanders have one shot at success: pass “The Process,” a series of interviews, puzzles, and quests designed to test their suitability to join a futuristic offshore utopia. Most fail, and many don’t survive, leaving the success rate at… 3%. It’s very much in Hunger Games territory, but the show has a darker, more adult tone. It’s also got four seasons that develop its characters and mythology, allowing it to dig a little deeper than some of its YA contemporaries. You can stream The 3% onNetflix .
Panic (2021, mini-series)
There’s a lot of familiarity here. A group of teens from a small Texas town compete in an annual competition called Panic — a bunch of TV-friendly teens competing in a series of dangerous stunts. The main novelty, as in the Lauren Oliver novel on which the show is based (she also wrote and produced the show), is the stakes: They’re atypically low, and that’s the point. Most of the other shows and movies on this list have built tension by dangling dramatically large prizes in front of starry-eyed contestants. Here, the winner gets just $50,000 for taking part in a series of life-threatening stunts — indeed, as the show opens, there were two deaths the previous year, and there will be casualties in this year’s Panic. It’s good money, but it won’t exactly set anyone up for life, and it’s not enough to inspire kids from a wealthier town to take part. For some, it’s a chance to move out of town or go to college — dreams far beyond most of the contestants’ reach. While the rich kids live their lives, the poor kids fight over scraps. You can stream Panic on Prime Video .
We Are All Dead (2022–, renewed for a second season)
A departure from the “death games” genre, All of Us Are Dead is a zombie thriller. Here, high school is hell, almost literally, as a viral outbreak turns the school into the epicenter of a strange plague. While it’s unclear at first, the teens soon realize that they’re isolated from the rest of the town. Help isn’t coming. Nihilism isn’t uncommon in zombie stories, as are themes surrounding the breakdown of social structures. All of Us Are Dead , instead, explores the world of a secluded high school under constant threat as a parallel to our own: Class and background continue to be powerful forces, even (or especially) amid the trauma of the attacks, and arbitrary social hierarchies are reinforced by the constant trauma rather than adapted. The school’s closed location is used brilliantly, and there’s some appropriately soapy drama, too. Look for Emmy Award winner Lee Yoo-mi of Squid Game as spoiled rich girl Lee Na-young. You can watch We Are All Dead onNetflix .
“Wilds” (2020 – 2022, two seasons)
In a sign of our streaming times, The Wilds was a buzzy, surprise hit on Prime Video in its first season, only to lose viewers after a two-year hiatus. The show functions like a YA version of Lost — including a slightly ridiculous plane crash scenario — with characters who become increasingly interesting as the show goes on. Set between flashbacks and flashforwards, a plane full of teenage girls from different places crashes en route to an empowerment program in Hawaii. It quickly becomes clear that the crash was staged, and that the whole thing is some kind of social experiment, forcing the survivors to compete against each other for survival. The show is smart enough to understand how young women in the real world are exploited and must compete against each other, which makes for some complex plot twists. You can stream The Wilds on Prime Video .
Alice in Borderland (2020 – renewed for a third season)
Video game obsessive Arisu gets his wish, of sorts, when he finds himself, along with a couple of friends, transported to an alternate, eerily abandoned version of Tokyo – the Borderland of the title – vividly brought to life with clever green-screen work. The three are directed to an arena and given instructions for a game, which they’ll be playing whether they want to or not. The first event is a locked-room-style puzzle; if they fail, the room burns down with them in it – think Ready Player One , with more deadly stakes. Games take place every night, though the rules allow the winners to get a vacation… there are actually a lot of rules, but the games are cleverly and sadistically designed. It’s been renewed for a third season, due out in September. You can stream Alice in Borderland onNetflix .
Snowpiercer (2020 – 2024)
While it initially feels like an overextended imitation of Bong Joon-ho’s allegorical post-apocalyptic film, the show quickly takes on a life of its own as a smart sci-fi melodrama that wisely acknowledges that at the end of the world, there are no heroes and few real villains — mostly just people doing their best to survive. In a frozen future (2026, to be exact), humanity survives on an extremely long train that circles the globe. If it ever stops, everyone will die. Those who arrived with wealth live at the front of the train in relative luxury, while the poor subsist on scraps in the back. Daveed Diggs plays former detective Andre Layton, a tylee who is tasked by Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly), the train’s engineer and head of hospitality, to solve a series of murders. The inevitable uprising that follows puts them on opposite sides of a brutal conflict before each realizes they’re being manipulated by the other. You can stream Snowpiercer on AMC+ or buy episodes on Prime Video .
The Purge (2018–2019, two seasons)
The Purge film series has always created a heightened sense of social allegory over what are essentially exploitation-style home-invasion thrillers. The series operates in much the same vein, tying into the films while also serving as an entry point. Here, we meet former Marine Miguel (Gabriel Chavarria), whose sister Penelope (Jessica Garza) has joined a Purge-related cult. Jane (Amanda Warren) spends the night of Purge holed up in her office, trying to get some work done for her boss (William Baldwin); a pair of real estate developers attend a Purge gala hoping for investment from a super-rich oligarch (Reed Diamond). The disparate stories come together over the course of a few episodes, which also delve a little deeper into the franchise’s mythology than the films do. You can stream The Purge on Hulu and Peacock .
Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (2007–2008)
People with large debts are given the chance to play deadly versions of childhood games against other players in the hopes of getting enough money to pay their bills. Sound familiar? Though it’s from a different country and a different decade, the Kaiji anime is about as close as you’re likely to get to Squid Game’s brand of darkly satirical thrills. ( Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has cited the original manga as an inspiration .) Kaiji Ito is a gambler who’s lost everything when he’s approached by a loan shark with an offer to participate in a highly secretive offshore gambling event. He’ll compete in events including a deadly version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, while others bet on him and his competitors for their own entertainment. You can stream Kaiji on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE, or rent episodes on Prime Video .
Game of Death (2023 – 2024)
Seo In Guk plays Choi Yi-jae, a young man who has become disillusioned with life after years of unemployment and eventually decides to take his own life. Death (Park So-dam) is less than impressed by his casual attitude — in fact, she gets angry and sentences him to a dozen lifetimes on the brink of death before she drags him to hell. First he’s a powerful heir, then a bullied high school student, then an abandoned child, and so on. Think Quantum Leap , but with more death. Seeing lives (and deaths) through the eyes of others, Yi-jae comes to the realization that he’d rather live, thank you very much, and besides, if he can save the life of anyone he enters, he’ll be able to stay. You can stream Game of Death on Prime Video .
Kaiji, Purge