Squid Game Season 3: The Final Three Games Revealed

This article contains spoilers regarding the games introduced in SQUID GAME season 3 (but no major spoilers about their results). 

Squid Game season 3 is unique among the global phenomenon’s three seasons. Not only does this batch of six episodes represent the ultimate end of the series (or so Netflix claims), it’s also the first season to not begin with a new edition of the titular games. That’s because creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s vision for a season 1 follow-up grew so large that it needed to be split in two. Why the 2024 edition of Squid Game became two separate seasons and not merely a “Part 1” and “Part 2” is anyone’s guess…but hopefully it means Hwang got paid more.

In any case, Squid Game season 3 introduces fewer games than either season before it. But what these final three matches lack in quantity, they more than make up for with bloody carnage. This is another round of terrifying children’s games, curated for maximum tragedy. Read on for our breakdown of every game included in Squid Game season 3 below and get a reminder of season 2’s contests here.

Game Four – Hide-and-Seek

While some Squid Game contests are highly specific to the show’s South Korean setting, others are more widely found on playgrounds the world over. “Hide-and-Seek” is one such game. Among the most famous children’s games ever (possibly second only to “tag”), Hide-and-Seek is very simple: hiders hide and seekers seek. If a hider stays hidden for the duration of the game, they win. If a hider is discovered by a seeker, they are eliminated. And this being Squid Game, “elimination” takes on a very literal context.

In Squid Game‘s version of this event, teams are divided into hiders and seekers through use of a gumball machine. Those who receive a red ball are assigned as seekers and given a small knife to kill their prey once found. Those who receive a blue ball are assigned as hiders and given a key that will open one of the many doors in the maze-like play area to hide. Unfortunately, a door can be unlocked only once and not re-locked, making sedentary hiders particularly vulnerable … unless they team up to find the maze’s promised exit.

Game Five – Jump Rope

As teased in season 2’s post-credit scene, the iconic “Red Light, Green Light” doll Young-hee gets a new assignment in this edition of Squid Game. She holds one end of a rope suspended over an elevated platform while her “boyfriend” Cheol-su holds the other end. You can kind of see where this is going, right?

Yes, game 5 is a relatively straightforward game of jump rope with typically deadly consequences. Players must advance from one end of a thin walking bridge while periodically jumping to avoid Young-hee and Cheol-su’s swinging rope. If they make it to the other side, they move on to the next round. If they don’t, they fall to their deaths. Notably, the fifth game of season 5 “Glass Stepping Stones” also incorporated height as a deadly element. Jump rope, however, does not assign players a crossing order – creating predictable chaos.

Game Six – Sky Squid Game

The final game in the 2024 edition of Squid Game is similar to the final game of the 2021 edition but with one major addition. It’s “Squid Game” played in the sky. The rules of squid game were slightly confusing to many Western viewers who weren’t familiar with the four square-esque format that involved players prowling around an interconnected circle, square, and triangle.

Sky squid game simplifies things by separating the circle, square, and triangle into isolated platforms high up from the ground. The players first gather on the square and at least one must be pushed off for all surviving players to advance to the triangle. Then at least one player must be eliminated again within the time limit for the surviving players to advance to the final circle. If at least one player is eliminated from the circle within the time limit, whoever remains is the ultimate winner of the games.

The careful wording of “at least one” player must be ejected from each shape creates for much politicking and treachery.

All six episodes of Squid Game season 3 are available to stream on Netflix now.