Around the world, people are clamoring to play the Korean children’s games from the dystopian series.
T he Squid Game phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down. The dystopian Korean series about debt-stricken people playing children’s games for cash was viewed by a “mindboggling” 142 million Netflix members in its first four weeks, making the K-drama smash hit the streaming service’s most watched series of all time. Now it looks like Squid Game may be coming to a city near you. Earlier this month, Netflix France opened an official Squid Game pop-up experience in Paris for a single weekend. Visitors were able to play some of the games featured in the series, including ddakji, where players throw red and blue envelopes to the ground as they try to flip their opponents’ tiles. Also on offer was dalgona, where players try to carefully remove preformed shapes—triangles, circles, stars and umbrellas—from flat wafers of sugar candy. Netflix did not confirm whether more official Squid Game pop-ups will appear in Paris or other cities. But its pilot project in the French capital is any indicator of massive demand for more official Squid Game experiences. Thousands of visitors flocked to the pop-up store on tiny rue d’Alexandrie in the Bonne Nouvelle neighborhood on the city’s Right Bank, with some fans revealing on social media that they had queued for up to seven hours for the chance to get inside and play the Korean children’s games, minus the 45.
