Fill the Squid Game Void with These 3 Reality Game Shows

The much-anticipated second season of Squid Game dropped on December 26. If you’re like me and found it just as binge-able as season 1, you may be antsy with anticipation for season 3 to drop.

Maybe even more so because, unlike the first season, season 2 ended with a massive cliffhanger. (In fact, I was actually surprised they made a second season out of the show. What about you? I would’ve been okay with where it ended…until I watched season 2. Now I’m invested in the follow-up storyline.)

Anyway, we know season 3 is coming sometime in 2025. What we don’t know is exactly when. However, in an interview with Variety, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk said he expected the season 3 release announcement to come soon. He also anticipated it would likely drop in either the summer or fall of this year.

That’s good news that our wait won’t be years long. (I’m looking at you, Stranger Things.) Still, that’s also months away.

Sure, we’ll have plenty of other shows coming out to binge this year, but Squid Game fills a particularly ruthless, cutthroat-oriented niche. It’s very Survivor-like on the one hand—except not real and with much higher stakes. (Survivor hasn’t lost a contestant yet.)

But on the other hand, it’s a unique creation.

However, there are three other reality competition shows that are Squid Game-esque. One is brand new and premiered right before Squid Game season 2. Another one starts its third season on January 9. The third has two full seasons out to catch up on if you missed them beforehand. Let’s explore them all.

Beast Games

I stumbled upon Beast Games by accident. Ironically, it was after I’d finished binging Squid Games and was rooting around my streamers for something else to watch. I was waylaid on the couch sick (and had been for over a week), so I’d already watched everything else saved up in my queues.

Neither my husband nor I were too keen to try Beast Games at first. But since we hadn’t found anything else, we gave the first episode a whirl. Before we knew it, we binged the three episodes that were available at that time.

New episodes drop on Thursdays, so we gobbled up last week’s and are eagerly anticipating the rest.

It’s very much like Squid Games in many respects. In fact, MrBeast actually recreated Squid Game in real life for one of his YouTube episodes, which perhaps inspired his Beast Games series.

Basically, there’s a massive prize pot of $5 million available to 1,000 contestants made up of everyday people (rather than celebrities) to try and win. If they can survive the “nail-biting, physical, mental, and social challenges,” that is. And let me tell you, some of them are brutal.

Beast Games, an Amazon Original, premiered on December 19. You can watch on Prime Video with a Prime membership.

The Traitors

As 2025 gets underway, Thursdays are going to be my favorite days. Not only do new episodes of Beast Games come out, but season 3 of The Traitors is back on Peacock starting January 9. (With a three-episode premiere! New episodes will drop on Thursdays thereafter, with the finale and reunion set for March 6.)

I’m absolutely nuts about this show. (Which I recently learned is based on a real-life horror story!) Kind of like Beast Games, I gave it a shot more out of boredom than true curiosity. Luckily, it was season 2. After I finished binging it, I watched season 1. Then, I gobbled up both episodes of the U.K. version, as well as the first seasons of the Australian and New Zealand versions.

The prize of $250,000 is considerably less than the one offered on Beast Games, but the treachery is just as vicious. Perhaps even more so because it’s more intimate.

Season 3 will start with 21 contestants, all of whom are reality stars from other shows, including other game shows like Survivor and Big Brother. However, the numbers quickly dwindle. Every night, fellow players vote one of their own out, but the Traitors also meet in secret to murder one of the Faithfuls. So that’s two gone most episodes. (Unless the Faithfuls vote out a Traitor during the roundtable and they need to recruit a new member.)

I like the twisted games, which often involve macabre sets or settings. (Coffins, graveyards at night, even being strapped to a wheel with skeletons.) I’m super excited to see what they come up with this year.

The Mole

Last summer, I watched the second season of Netflix’s The Mole, which was a reboot of a show that ran for five seasons on ABC from 2001-2008. I didn’t realize it was a reboot at first, though. But once I did, I was stoked.

In addition to Amazing Race, The Mole is one of my all-time favorite reality competition shows. I was crushed when it was canceled, and I never thought I’d see it again. (Except in reruns, of course.) So I was excited when I belatedly discovered Netflix had resurrected it. (Better late than never, though!)

Unlike The Traitors, viewers are as in the dark about who the Mole is as the players on the show are. Part of the fun is trying to see if you can figure out who it is.

A third season hasn’t been announced. Yet. (I’m hopeful it’ll happen.) But you can watch both seasons of the rebooted version on Netflix now to satisfy your Squid Game cravings.

*Bonus* Squid Game: Unleashed

If you happen to be a gamer, you could also play Squid Game: Unleashed, “the definitive Squid Game video game.”

You can “play with friends (or enemies) online and see if you have what it takes to outlast and defeat all the other contestants in each twisted tournament.”

New content, including characters and events, drop on January 9 and 16. There’s also a “Watch Along” feature that gives players in-game rewards for every episode of season 2 they complete. 

The mobile game is available to download on Google Play, the App Store, and the Galaxy Store. For more info, visit: https://www.squidgameunleashed.com.

Check-In

Do you know of any other show(s) with a Squid Game vibe?