TV Shows Like Squid Game
If you like Squid Game, here are 10 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
Netflix · Action & Adventure · Squid Game is ended
Squid Game works because it never lets you forget what is at stake. The games themselves are simple, sometimes absurd, borrowed from childhood, but the threat of death strips away every social pretense and forces characters to show who they really are under pressure. That tension between innocence and brutality is the engine. So is the mystery of who is running it all and why. Fans watch through their fingers, but they keep watching.
The best shows like Squid Game
1. The Day of the Jackal
Squid Game's best moments come from watching someone operate under extreme pressure while everyone around them tries to figure out their next move. The Day of the Jackal runs on the same fuel, with a lone assassin and a relentless intelligence officer locked in a chase where one mistake ends everything. The cat-and-mouse structure gives it that same tight, unblinking tension.
Likely Renewed90%
2. Outer Banks
Outer Banks is less brutal than Squid Game but hits the same nerve of ordinary people stumbling into a dangerous game controlled by forces much bigger than them. The teens at the center are resourceful and desperate in equal measure, and the show keeps raising the stakes just when you think they might catch a break. If you liked watching underdogs scramble, this delivers that reliably.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Ended3%
3. Legends
Squid Game's players have to wear masks to survive, and the undercover operatives in Legends live that problem permanently. Set in 1990s Britain, it puts its characters deep inside criminal organizations where a single slip can be fatal, and the psychological cost of the deception is just as interesting as the action. Fans of Squid Game's darker character work will find a lot to chew on here.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Ended0%
4. Citadel
The secret organization running Squid Game from the shadows is one of the show's most unsettling elements, and Citadel is built almost entirely around that idea. Former spies with wiped memories have to reconstruct who they were while a hidden enemy closes in, which means the characters are never quite sure who to trust, including themselves. It moves fast and keeps the conspiracy layered enough to stay interesting.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
On the Bubble48%
5. The Unit
Squid Game is ultimately about what survival costs, and The Unit asks the same question from a military angle. A covert special forces team operates in the shadows on missions that are never officially happening, and the show is honest about the toll that takes on the people doing the work and the families covering for them at home. It is grounded where Squid Game is heightened, but the moral weight feels familiar.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Ended0%
More on shows like Squid Game
People who love Squid Game tend to be drawn to shows where the rules of a situation are hidden or rigged, where power is held by someone unseen, and where ordinary people, or very dangerous ones, have to stay sharp just to survive. They want a plot that moves fast and characters who have to make ugly choices. They are not necessarily looking for another death game, but they want that same feeling of dread underneath every scene.
The recommendations here cover a lot of ground but share that core quality. The Day of the Jackal is the most stylistically sleek, a cat-and-mouse thriller where both sides are frighteningly competent. Citadel leans into the secret-organization angle directly, with spies who do not even know their own history. Outer Banks is lighter in tone but carries the same energy of young people in over their heads, chasing something that powerful people do not want them to find. Legends drops its characters into a world where deception is the only tool, and the line between the role and the person blurs. The Unit is the most grounded of the group, focused on what it costs to operate in the dark, both for the operatives and the people they leave behind.
None of these shows are Squid Game, and they should not try to be. What they share is the sense that someone, somewhere, is controlling the board, and the people we are watching have to figure that out before it is too late. That is the hook Squid Game set, and all five of these shows keep pulling on it.
More shows like Squid Game
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Squid Game?
- The Day of the Jackal is the most popular show similar to Squid Game in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Squid Game still on the air?
- Of the 10 shows similar to Squid Game listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Squid Game?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.