6 Shows And Movies Like ‘squid Game’ With Deadly Competitions (how Likely Would You Survive?)

Squid Game Season 2 has come and gone, which means that you can finally relax. That one character you liked survived.

On the other hand, you might be so jacked up with adrenaline that you don’t want the excitement to end. Convinced that all future self-respecting shows must now pit likeable goofballs against the horrors of capitalism, you search anxiously across the Internet for anything remotely similar to Squid Game – even if it’s a YouTube video of a lion fighting a crocodile and a hippo at the same time. Well, you can stop now. There’s an entire subgenre of shows like Squid Game where hapless laypeople are entered into potentially deadly competitions which incidentally also represent modern society. Here are the best – as well as how likely you’d survive their particular contests. (Also, for some reason, a lot of them are Japanese. Like, is Japan OK?)

As the Gods Will

Toho

Concept: This Japanese horror thriller follows a surreal and gory survival game set up by mysterious powers. High school students are plunged into lethal contests, with each challenge based on classic children’s games like “red light, green light.” Sound familiar? (Squid Game was actually accused of plagiarizing this concept.)

Villain: Takeru seems to like killing his classmates a little too much. 

Likelihood you’ll survive: 1/10 Godzillas. There is no room for error in these games — failure means a horrific death. With its gruesome visual imagery, pretzel-like twists, and creepy sense of humor, As the Gods Will definitely delivers. 

3%

Netflix

Concept: In a dystopian Brazil, hot twenty-year-old poor people compete in “The Process,” a series of trials that determine which hot and poor twenty-year-olds will escape the slums and enter the privileged society of “The Offshore.” The rest will have to survive on hopes and dreams.

Villain: Capitalism. 

Likelihood you’ll survive: 7/10 Brazilian wandering spiders. Though cutthroat and unfair, the Process is not explicitly deadly. But if you lose and return to poverty, you might die of starvation. That’s always fun! 

Liar Game

Fuji Television

Concept: Characters are invited to play a suspenseful psychological competition involving fibbing and manipulation. The naïve Nao Kanzaki is thrust into competing, but joins forces with Shinichi Akiyama, a genius former con man, to outsmart their foes. The rounds grow increasingly complex, intertwining mind games with social experiments that challenge players’ trust.

Villain: The mysterious creators of Liar Game.

Likelihood you’ll survive: 9/10 accidental poisonings. In contrast to some death games, Liar Game is much less about physical danger than it is about battle of wits, but the stakes are no less intense, and the moral implications no less rich. 

Alice in Borderland

Netflix

Concept – In an alternate-dimension Tokyo, random citizens are suddenly launched into a series of high-stakes real-life games inspired by video games. Arisu, a lonely and down-on-his luck gamer, must band with his friends to extend his “visa” in this horrific netherworld – or pay the consequences. There are twists! 

Villain – The Queen of Hearts, an eerily cheerful sociopath with model-good looks.

Likelihood you’d survive: 1/10 Mothras. Though “Borderland” is a visually marvelous world filled with engaging, allegorical puzzles, it is also trying to kill you. The death count on this series approaches Squid Game territory, though the fantasy element of Borderland softens this blow a bit.

The 8 Show

Netflix

Concept: 8 random and possibly depressed people are sent to a colorful set populated by mysterious cameras. They’re then informed that they’re on a game show and must follow a set of “rules” to win lots of money. As they discover more rules, they realize that they’re the main characters of a rigged, patently unfair, and unexpectedly violent survival horror.

Villains: 6th Floor and 8th Floor (like, those are their names in the show).

Likelihood you’ll survive: 8/10. While contestants are explicitly told not to kill each other, this doesn’t stop them from really, really wanting to.

Darwin’s Game

Nexus

Concept: This anime centers on Kaname Sudou, a high schooler who accepts a strange invitation and gets pulled into a mobile game like Pokémon Go – but with a twist. The game grants players unique powers known as “Sigils,” which they employ to battle others in real-life encounters. Kaname has to make alliances, discover the truth of the game and struggle to survive against his merciless opponents. 

Villain: Banda-kun, a bored man dressed like a baseball team mascot.

Likelihood you’ll survive: 3/10 Charizards. Did we mention that those real-life encounters are deadly? Oh, we didn’t? Well, they are!