Squid Game: The Challenge OTT release date: When & where to watch reality version of iconic show

Netflix scored an era-defining thumping success back in 2021 in the form of Squid Game, the South Korean survival drama that showed how 456 financially doomed citizens are employed on a secret reality show. The catch, though, is they are made to play "deadly" versions of popular children's games and the cost of losing is that you simply lose your life. The lone survivor, however, gets to take home a cash prize of ₩45.6 billion prize. 

Squid Game Season 1 clocked more than 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first 28 days of premiere in 2021 and the show reached number one in as many as 94 countries at the time, including the United States and the United Kingdom. It remains Netflix's most-watched show to date.

The streamer then confirmed Season 2 of Squid Game in June 2022 which ultimately went into production in July 2023.

Also Read: Squid Game Season 2: Everything you need to know about the new additions to the cast

But for those many million Squid Game admirers out there, the wait for the second season might feel cut short by a little, at the least, by the release of the reality version of the show. Netflix recently announced that real people would get a chance to experience Squid Game-like events in a reality show titled 'Squid Game: The Challenge' wherein 456 contestants from the real world will compete for a cash prize of $4.56 million.

“Though the reality version of ‘Squid Game‘ isn’t a matter of life or death, there’s still a lot on the line,” says Netflix's logline of the show, promising a lot of thrills and intensity, despite confessing that it will be a much more diluted version of the actual show. Earlier today, the streamer dropped the first poster of Squid Game: The Challenge, which is set to debut on November 22.

But interestingly, the reality show recently hit the headlines for slightly unflattering reasons when it came to the fore that a few of the contestants required medical assistance during the proceedings. One of them is even recorded as saying (to Variety) that the conditions under which the games were played were 'inhumane'.

Also Read: Squid Game: The Challenge Teaser - High-stakes reality competition based on the thrilling series is almost here with record-breaking prize money

Squid Season 2's cast sees Lee Jung-jae reprise his central role of Seong Gi-hun with the large ensemble cast also featuring Lee Byung-hun, Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, and others.