How much money are you willing to put your life at risk for? The third and final season of Netflix’s brutal survival drama Squid Game just dropped, and as usual, the death toll far outweighs the number of survivors. The South Korean series is about a competition that pits 456 strangers against each other for 45.6 billion won or approximately $3 million. The contestants compete against each other in a series of challenges inspired by the games they once played as children, where winning means advancing to the next level and losing means death.
One of the most entertaining parts of watching the show is imagining yourself in their shoes, plotting your survival, judging the players, and wondering what you would do next. Whether it’s standing still in Red Light, Green Light or pulling for your life in Tug of War, we’ve all had only one thought: I could make it out of this alive. But could you, really? Here are the 10 most brutal Squid Game challenges across all seasons, ranked in order of brutality.
10. Red Light, Green Light
Hands down one of the most recognisable challenges from the series, Red Light, Green Light offers a deadly twist on the classic South Korean game of the same name, where players stand at the edge of a field behind a starting line, while another person stands at the far end of the field. The goal is to cross to the opposite side, moving only when the other player says "Green Light" and to stand absolutely still when they say "Red Light." If a player moves, they’re eliminated. Squid Game adds a sinister twist, where players are brutally shot down as the game carries on. Now, it may seem like a simple test of obedience, but the psychological pressure is relentless, especially as panic spreads, bodies drop, and the clock starts ticking.
9. Lights Out
Living with 400 other people in a high-stakes competition where the price is life or death, you’re bound to go a little crazy. ‘Lights Out’ isn’t technically a game, but it’s one of the most realistic and believable events in the series. In the second season, contestants are given a dinner tray with a fork. Once the lights go out in the dormitory, players have two choices: either attack other contestants to increase their chances of surviving the upcoming games or rely on sheer luck to make it through this engineered bloodbath. It’s the lack of rules and the pure, vindictive chaos of this rogue massacre that makes it one of the most terrifying moments in the show. It sets the chilling realisation that in this game, you’re not safe anywhere.
8. Tug of War
Tug of War is a pretty straightforward game, one you’ve probably played at some point in your childhood. Two teams stand opposite each other, tugging on a rope in opposite directions. In theory, there’s nothing scary or complicated about this challenge, unless you detest any form of physical activity. But when you take Tug of War and set the two teams on opposite sides of a high ledge, with nothing but a fatal drop between them, it suddenly doesn’t seem so innocent anymore. The Tug of War challenge in Squid Game Season 1 is one of the most stressful scenes in the show, as you watch two teams pulling with every ounce of strength to hold on, all while the realisation sinks in that winning means dragging the others to a brutal death.
7. Hide & Seek
Another classic game gets a sinister update in the ultimate season of Squid Game. The final season of the deadly series opens with players forced to continue the games after the failed rebellion in Season 2. They are led to a room where a gumball machine decides their fate, splitting them into two groups: Hiders, players assigned a random key marked with a square, circle, or triangle that opens a hidden door, and Seekers, a team handed a knife and tasked with killing at least one of the Hiders in order to survive. The game forces players to make impossible choices, including the heart-wrenching and shocking twist where Player 149, Jang Geum‑ja, decides to take the life of her own son, Park Yong‑sik (Player 007), in a desperate bid to stay alive.
6. Honeycomb Challenge
The most viral challenge from the series, and arguably the easiest to replicate for a no-kills, only-thrills Squid Game-themed party at home, the Honeycomb challenge tasks players with cutting out a shape from a delicate dalgona cookie using only a needle. The goal: successfully carve out the shape without breaking the cookie. This challenge tests your precision, patience, and nerves. While it might seem simple enough to complete in a relaxed home setting, it’s a very different story when a masked soldier in a red jumpsuit is watching your every move, ready to shoot if you fail.
5. Marbles
As the series progresses, the deaths and challenges get flashier, but some of the most memorable and unsettling moments come from the simplest of tasks executed with that signature Squid Game twist. The Marbles challenge from Season 1 is one such standout challenge. Players are allowed to pair up, thinking it is a team challenge, only to later realise they will be playing a game of marbles against each other where the winner takes all the marbles, and the loser is sent to die. This challenge surpasses the Honeycomb game in terms of brutality because it forces players to question their own survival, as they are made to choose between themselves and their closest ally in the game so far.
4. The Six-Legged Race
This five-part challenge ties teams together at the ankles and gives them five minutes to complete a lap around a rainbow-coloured circuit track. The catch? There are five checkpoints, one for each player, where they must complete a task to move forward. The five retro-style games are:
- Ddakji: Flip folded paper tiles by slamming them with another tile.
- Flying Stone: Hit a stone on the ground using another stone.
- Gonggi: A Korean pebble game consisting of multiple levels, the final level requiring you to catch all the stones in one go.
- Spinning Top: Wind a thread around a top and throw it to make it spin.
- Jegi: Bounce a paper sack five times in a row with your leg without letting it fall.
The main threats in this challenge are the lack of coordination, the tight time limit, and the mounting pressure from your teammates.
3. Mingle
Aside from having a really catchy tune which quickly became everyone’s ringtone when the season was released, the third game in Season 2, Mingle, also turned out to be one of the scariest in franchise history. The challenge has players standing on a merry-go-round, listening to a playful melody that suddenly stops and barks out a number, sending everyone into a frenzy to form a group with the correct number of people and reach a designated room before being shot down. The game is brutal because there is no way to form a strategy in advance; it relies entirely on sheer luck or forces you to play dirty, including killing others to survive.
2. Glass Bridge
One of the most intense and nail-biting moments of Season 1 comes when the game is down to its final 16 contestants, who are tasked with crossing a glass bridge made up of randomised panels, some sturdy, others designed to shatter under pressure. Relying on nothing but dumb luck, you watch as contestants who have fought against all odds to make it this far fall to their ill-fated deaths with just one simple misstep. This is one of those challenges where even you, as a viewer, feel helpless because the only way to inch closer to a survival strategy is by watching yet another player fall to their death.
1. Jump Rope
The jump rope challenge in Season 3 definitely feels inspired by the glass bridge event from Season 1. This challenge places contestants on one end of a narrow drawbridge and tasks them with getting across to the other side without falling off. It raises the stakes by adding a giant jump rope that contestants must successfully skip over and land ahead on the drawbridge all without plummeting to their death. While this challenge initially seems less hopeless than the glass bridge, it proves to be even more difficult due to Player 124, who throws contestants off just before they can make it to the end.
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