20 Shows Like ‘Squid Game’ to Watch Ahead of Season 2

I'm not ashamed to admit that I’ve spent hours combing through fan theories about Squid Game season two.

The history-making survival drama, which garnered 111 million viewers in its first month on Netflix, captivated viewers with its eye-catching visuals and unsettling premise. And lucky for me, season two is dropping on December 26, 2024.

While discussing the upcoming season with The Hollywood Reporter, director Hwang Dong-hyuk said, "The philosophies I put in season one all naturally extend to season two...Seong Gi-hun has become a totally new person by the end of season one, so season two is going to be about what that new Gi-hun is going to do and how things will unfold with this new kind of character."

I can't wait to see how Gi-hun's story unfolds, but until the new season premieres, I'm turning my attention to shows like Squid Game that are equally compelling. From Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor to Alice in Borderland, here are the 20 best shows to add to your queue.

1. Alice in Borderland 

• Cast: Kento Yamazaki, Tao Tsuchiya, Yūki Morinaga, Keita Machida
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 86% | IMDb 7.7/10

Think Squid Game, but without the cash prize and classic children’s games. Alice in Borderland revolves around a skilled gamer named Arisu, who finds himself trapped in an abandoned Tokyo. He quickly learns that—in order to survive—he must compete in a series of deadly games, which are chosen by playing cards. But if he fails, he’s brutally executed by a red laser. The Japanese series won three Asian Academy Creative Awards, and in 2023, it got renewed for a third season.

2. Danganronpa: The Animation

• Cast: Megumi Ogata, Yôko Hikasa, Chiwa Saitô
• Rating: TV-14
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes (N/A) | IMDb 6.8/10

Inspired by the video game Danganronpa, the series centers on a group of 15 high schoolers who get locked up inside their elite school, Hope's Peak Academy. The students are terrorized by an anthropomorphic bear named Monokuma, and their escape plan puts everyone’s lives at risk. The anime has two volumes and it inspired a sequel called Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School.

3. 3% 

• Cast: João Miguel, Bianca Comparato, Michel Gomes, Rodolfo Valente
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 85% | IMDb 7.3/10

Imagine a futuristic society where everyone resides in either 1) the land of poverty (Inland) or 2) the land of plenty (Offshore). At one point, the Inlanders are given a rare opportunity to move to Offshore and better their lives. But there’s one catch: They must complete an extremely difficult challenge known as “The Process,” and the success rate is only three percent.

4. All of Us Are Dead

• Cast: Park Ji-hu, Yoon Chan-young, Cho Yi-hyun, Lee Yoo-mi, Yoo In-soo
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 89% | IMDb 7.5/10

Lee Yoo-mi, aka Player 240 from Squid Game, stars in this zombie apocalypse horror as a wealthy student who’s forced to navigate a zombie outbreak at her high school with no food or access to help. Twisted games aren’t involved…but there’s plenty of suspense, along with similar themes of survival and loyalty. (FYI, a second season of the horror series is coming sometime in 2025!)

5. Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

• Cast: Masato Hagiwara, Hakuryû, Naoya Uchida
• Rating: NR
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes (N/A) | IMDb 8.3/10

Based on the Japanese manga Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji, the anime revolves around Kaiji Itō, a poverty-stricken gambler who falls into a massive debt that he can’t repay. Things appear to look up when he gets a chance to repay his deficiencies. But he quickly learns that it will involve competing in a series of life-threatening games on a cruise ship. (Sound familiar?) 

6. High-Rise Invasion

• Cast: Haruka Shiraishi, Shiki Aoki, Akira Sekine, Junya Enoki
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 69% | IMDb 6.5/10

In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, a high school student named Yuri Honjō gets trapped in a strange world that’s filled with skyscrapers and, worse yet, masked killers who are trying to hunt her down. But over time, she realizes that she isn’t the only teenager trapped there. Can Yuri and her peers figure out a way to escape?

7. Dr. Brain

• Cast: Lee Sun-kyun, Lee Yoo-young, Park Hee-soon, Seo Ji-hye
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 80% | IMDb 6.7/10

When Sewon, a brain scientist, loses his entire family to a mysterious tragedy, he decides to investigate what truly happened to them. His method of choice? To retrieve memories from those who have passed away through a special procedure. However, it’s only a matter of time before those memories start to interfere with his own life. In 2022, it was announced that a second season was in the works, but Lee Sun-kyun, who starred as the scientist Sewon Koh, sadly passed away in 2023, before any progress was made.

8. Tomodachi Game

• Cast: Chiaki Kobayashi, Daiki Hamano, Reina Ueda
• Rating: TV-14
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes (N/A) | IMDb 7.6/10

Think Squid Game, but instead of having a large pool of over 400 contestants, it's between five close friends. Yuuichi Katagiri and his four pals make plans to go on a high school trip, but when their money gets stolen, they get roped into a mysterious game that's connected to someone's debt. The grand prize? You guessed it—a boatload of money.

9. Darwin's Game

• Cast: Yūsuke Kobayashi, Reina Ueda, Nichika Ōmori, Taku Yashiro
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes (N/A) | IMDb 7.2/10

Kaname, a 17-year-old student, accepts a seemingly harmless invitation to play a mobile app game known as “Darwin's Game.” But little does he know that he’s been sucked into a dark and twisted challenge that puts his life at serious risk. After realizing he’s trapped, he must figure out a way to defeat the evil Game Master. The series is based on a survival shōnen manga written and illustrated by FLIPFLOPs.

10. Extracurricular

• Cast: Kim Dong-hee, Park Ju-hyun, Jung Da-bin, Nam Yoon-su
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 91% | IMDb 7.6/10

To everyone, Oh Ji-soo is a star student. But what they don’t know is that he’s making extra cash through an illegal (but lucrative) side hustle. Before long, his classmate discovers his secret and forces him to let her join the business. But this only causes more trouble. Like Squid Game, Extracurricular explores class and income inequality, while also shedding light on how far people will go for money.

11. Re:Mind

• Cast: Mirei Sasaki, Sarina Ushio, Mei Higashimura
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes (N/A) | IMDb 5/10

The twisty psychological thriller begins with a group of high school students who wake up to find themselves shackled to the floor of a mysterious room. As they attempt to plan an escape, they come to realize that they all have history with a classmate who vanished several months ago. And over time, the girls start to disappear one by one. Will any of them get out alive?

12. The Purge

• Cast: Max Martini, Derek Luke, Charlotte Schweiger
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 42% | IMDb 6.6/10

If you’ve seen any movie in the franchise, then you already know that The Purge is all about human survival. Set in a dystopian future, where the United States allows crime to be legal for one day of the year, the series follows several characters as they try to survive the horrifying event. Unlike the movie franchise, the show also dives into the aftermath of the Purge.

13. Panic 

• Cast: Olivia Welch, Mike Faist, Jessica Sula
• Rating: TV-PG
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 67% | IMDb 6.6/10

A group of 23 high school graduates compete in the annual “Panic” competition for a grand prize of $50,000, but it’s not to settle debts. Rather, this could be their golden ticket to freedom for life outside of their dull Texas town. But the stakes are high, and only one of them can win. Created by Lauren Oliver, the show was unfortunately canceled after just one season—but trust me, it's worth the binge.

14. Black Mirror

• Cast: Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 83% | IMDb 8.7/10

One can argue that Squid Game feels like one giant Black Mirror episode, thanks to its suspense, brilliant social commentary and thought-provoking storylines. Practically every episode will have you thinking long after the credits roll, ranging from topics like advanced technology to social media. The British anthology series earned a total of nine Emmy Awards and four BAFTA Television Awards.

15. The Future Diary

• Cast: Misuzu Togashi, Tomosa Murata
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes (N/A) | IMDb 7.4/10

Like Squid Game, The Future Diary offers a similar gaming structure but with supernatural elements. The series follows 12 people who are given special future diaries (or journals that can predict the future) by the God of Time and Space. But unbeknownst to them, they’ve been chosen for a survival game to become the next heir to the universe. BTW, there's an 11-episode live-action spin-off called Another:World, although it features an entirely new plot that differs from the manga and anime.

16. Assassination Classroom 

• Cast: Jun Fukuyama, Mai Fuchigami, Bryce Papenbrook
• Rating: TV-14
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 67% | IMDb 8/10

A deadly, powerful creature announces his plans to destroy planet Earth within a year—but not all hope is lost. In a fascinating twist, the creature gives humanity a chance to save themselves by teaching a class on how to assassinate him. Assassination Classroom was met with so much success that it spawned an anime film, multiple video games and a spin-off manga called Koro Sensei Quest.

17. Sweet Home

• Cast: Song Kang, Lee Jin-wook, Lee Si-young
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 86% | IMDb 7.2/10

It doesn't involve deadly competitions, but like Squid Game, this edge-of-your-seat horror tackles themes like humanity and morality. Shortly after Cha Hyun-soo moves into his new apartment, deadly monsters start to emerge and wreak havoc on the town. But does Cha have what it takes to stop the invasion before it's too late? 

• Cast: Cho Jung-myung, Choi Hyun-mi, Dustin Nippert, Jang Seong-min
• Rating: TV-14
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 85% | IMDb 7.7/10

If you're craving an actual reality show that's super risky and intense, then I'd say this South Korean reality competition series is as close as it gets. On the show, a hundred contestants are selected to compete, based on their physical shape (think boxers, wrestlers and gymnasts). Each person must go through a series of grueling quests (like the hanging challenge and the "death match" challenge) to claim first prize and the hefty cash reward.

• Cast: Im Si-wan, Lee Dong-wook, Cha Rae-hyung
• Rating: TV-14
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes (N/A) | IMDb 7.8/10

Up for a dark, suspenseful Korean drama that makes you think twice about trusting total strangers? Try Hell Is Other People. Although it doesn't feature any deadly games, it does revolve around a poor, down-on-his-luck character who finds himself in an impossible situation, and the series expertly explores the human psyche.

• Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Kim Hyun-joo, Park Jeong-min, Won Jin-ah, Yang Ik-june
• Rating: TV-MA
• Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 97% | IMDb 6.6/10

If there's one thing I like about Squid Game, it's that you never know what to expect. The same can be said for Hellbound, but there are also supernatural elements. In this series, the Korean population gets the surprise of a lifetime when hell (literally) comes knocking. Several death angels appear and begin to forecast people's deaths before murdering them and sending them off to hell.