The season stars Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, O Yeong-su, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi and Kim Joo-ryoung.

Around 2008, Hwang Dong-hyuk had tried unsuccessfully to get investment for a different movie script that he had written, and he, his mother, and his grandmother had to take out loans to stay afloat, but still struggled amid the debt crisis within the country.

Kim Minyoung, one of Netflix's content officers for the Asian regions, recognized Hwang's talent from The Fortress and his other films, and upon seeing his script for Squid Game, knew they needed it for the service.

[30][34] Netflix's Bela Bajaria, head of global television operations, said of their interest in Hwang's work that "we knew it was going to be big in Korea because it had a well-regarded director with a bold vision", and that "K-Dramas also travel well across Asia".

"[25] Hwang further believed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economic disparity between classes in South Korea, and said that "All of these points made the story very realistic for people compared to a decade ago".

As production continued, Hwang pushed on the service to use Squid Game instead; its cryptic name and unique visuals helped to draw in curious viewers, according to Kim.

[53] As Netflix was targeting the work for a global audience, the visuals were emphasized and some of the rules of the children's games were simplified to avoid potential issues with the language barrier.

For example, in the Glass Stepping Stones scenes, the set, designed as if in a circus tent for the players performing for the VIPs, was only 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) off the ground, using chroma key screens to simulate the height in post-production.

[60] A cover of "Fly Me to the Moon",[f] arranged by Jung and sung by Korean artist Joo Won Shin, was used over the "Red Light, Green Light" game of the first episode; according to Joo, Hwang wanted a contrast between the brutal killing of the players and the "romantic and beautiful lyrics and melody" of the song, such that the scene "embodies the increasingly polarized capitalist society that we live in today in a very compressed and cynical way".

[70] A Squid Game pop-up store opened in Paris on October 2 and 3, 2021,[71] and a person could win a free one-month Netflix subscription if they managed to get the right shape from the dalgona in one minute and 30 seconds.

[88] Many Koreans in these situations, often named as the "dirt spoon" class, engage in risky propositions, such as high-risk investments, cryptocurrency, or gambling, anticipating a big payoff but end up further in debt and exacerbating their problem, according to The Associated Press's Kim Tong-Hyung.

[89][90] The use of trainingbok outfits for the players was said to allude to their connotation with baeksu, roughly translated as "white hands", people that have not attained financial independence and as a result are discriminated against by society, spending their days idle and doing no work, according to Indiana University professor Jooyoung Shin.

[91] Brian Lowry of CNN wrote that the season "presents a visually arresting variation on themes seen plenty of times before, which include tapping into the class divide – and the rich essentially preying on the poor and destitute – at a moment when the audience might be more receptive to that message".

[93] Caitlyn Clark of American socialist magazine Jacobin also compared the season favorably to Parasite and said that it "shreds the capitalist myth that hard work guarantees prosperity".

"[84] Morgan Ome of The Atlantic wrote that the season "fits into a category of South Korean works that grapple with economic anxieties and class struggles, which are rooted in the country's concerns but resonate globally", adding that it "indicts the rich for propagating a false sense of upward mobility and the poor for buying into it".

[99] The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions used outfits and imagery based on Squid Game as part of its messaging and demonstrations against the current economic disparity in South Korea.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Squid Game's unflinching brutality is not for the faint of heart, but sharp social commentary and a surprisingly tender core will keep viewers glued to the screen – even if it's while watching between their fingers.

"[123] Pierce Conran of the South China Morning Post rated the season with 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Overall, this is still a savagely entertaining slam dunk from Netflix Korea, which is likely to be embraced around the world as its predecessors were.

"[124] Hidzir Junaini of NME rated the season with 4 out of 5 stars and opined, "Thematic intelligence aside, Squid Game is also a white-knuckle watch, thanks to its visceral competition element.

[128] Abha Shah of the Evening Standard wrote that the season was "tightly written, each episode packed with enough pace to make it truly binge worthy", and praised its themes as being "universally engaging".

[129] Hugo Rifkind of The Times described parts of the season as being "glacially slow", but stated that it was "definitely interesting", and wrote: "Behind it all, there's an almost Lovecraftian sense of horror, to do with normal lives being unliveable, and huge, unknowable powers in the background that will smirk while you die.

"[130] Writing for The New York Times, TV critic Mike Hale found Squid Game to be an "utterly traditional, and thoroughly predictable ... melodrama" with "eye-catching" but "not especially interesting ... production design and costuming".

Teen Vogue writer Jae-ha Kim discussed how the 1997 Asian financial crisis influenced Gi-hun's story progression, particularly the loss of his job and the lack of education denying him opportunities, which she believed led him to taking predatory loans to survive.

[133] Salon writer Melanie McFarland felt that Gi-hun's actions, including draining his mother's bank account for gambling, represented how he, like other characters, fit into roles of either "monetary carnivore or scavenger."

[134] Authors Yavuz Akyıldız and Elif Şeşen argued that Gi-hun's decision to not use the money and "leads a miserable, depressive, and chaotic life" was a representation of the idea that the game cannot have a winner, stating that the economic structure of society leaves people "lonely and abandoned.

"[135] Screen Rant writer Andrei Sipos felt disappointed by the ending of the first season, believing that Sae-byeok should have survived instead of Gi-hun, feeling that him sacrificing himself for her would have made it more powerful.

Such works had drawn more attention due to streaming services like Netflix and YouTube making South Korean content, traditionally controlled by the country's national broadcasters, available across the globe.

[172] O Yeong-su, who had a modest career in Korean theater and film prior to Squid Game, was surprised by his newfound fame following the season, making him feel like he was "floating on air".

[147] Analytics firm Vobile stated that by November 2021, Squid Game-related videos on YouTube totaled over 17 billion views, surpassing Game of Thrones in the same metric.

The currency had drawn enough buyers to increase in value by over 2,300% within a day of trading, but news organizations like the BBC identified that the scheme appears to be a "rug pull" scam due to several red flags in the proposition.