If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Will Squid Game's record-breaking season 2 debut change Netflix's plan for a season 3 finale?

With a score this high, Netflix can't end the game now.

News by Grant DeArmitt, Staff Writer

Published on Fri Jan 03 2025

Popverse's top stories of the day

Will Squid Game's record-breaking season 2 debut change Netflix's plan for a season 3 finale?
2025 is the year One Punch Man season 3 finally adapts the cosmically weird Monster Association Arc and I can't wait
Hi-Diddily-Ho! It's the best (and the rest) Ned Flanders episodes of The Simpsons

We knew that the second season of Netflix's Squid Game would be big. But... wow.

The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Squid Game season 2 (which debuted December 26) broke the all-time record for Netflix weekend debuts. That bodes extremely well for the health of the streamers' K-Dramas, and one can assume that few series have the chance to top it, save perhaps for the series confirmed third season. After all, season 3 has been announced as the much-anticipated end of the popular thriller/ drama...

Or is it?

Hear us out for a moment - we think that the numbers Netflix is seeing for the series have them considering returning to Squid Game after the planned finale, even franchising it. We'll explain why we think so in just a second, but first: what do we mean when we say that Squid Game season 2 achieved the highest Netflix debut ever?

As mentioned in the THR article above, Squid Game season 2 scored 68 million views over its first weekend (I won't lie to you, reader, I'm trying to come up with an adjective to describe that viewer count, but I'm struggling. Trusty pal "whopping" has come up short). That surpasses the previous record, the debut of goth teen drama Wednesday, which held the top spot with a still impressive 50.1M views its first weekend. To put these incredible numbers in context; there are 283M Netflix users worldwide, according to a Forbes article from October 2024.

Don't do the math; we'll do it for you - if these numbers are correct, just under a quarter of Netflix's total subscribers watched Squid Game season 2. If that doesn't have Netflix smelling a franchise, then their noses are broken.

But we're not just pulling from the ether here when we forecast more Squid Game post-season 3; Netflix and the creative team were talking about doing more even before the recent S2 numbers dropped. Recently, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk spoke to THR about his idea for a spinoff, which he says "would be about different characters with a different story arc. Some kind of spinoff, maybe. For example, the masked guards. How did they end up here? What do they do in their downtime?"

Earlier still, a Deadline report from October 2024 revealed thriller icon David Fincher was circling around an English-language remake of the original show. Combine those with the fact that a reality show based around Squid Game challenges already exists, and you've got a field full of paths Netflix could take toward more Squid Game, even after the original story wraps up with season 3.

And unlike the contestants on the show, they'd be risking a whole lot less for financial gain.

Squid Game seasons 1 and 2 are streaming now on Netflix.

Fade to credits, then a pop-up of what to ~~watch~~ read next - just like Netflix:

Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news

Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. As Popverse's Staff Writer, he criss-crosses the pop culture landscape bringing you the news and opinions about the big things (and the next big things). In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.