Squid Game season 3 games: Final rounds explained with rules
From Hide and Seek to Jump Rope, more playground favourites are taking on a horrific new light.

Squid Game is back on our screens and with it comes a fresh batch of violent games that players will be forced to endure, as they set their sights on claiming that enormous jackpot for themselves.
The second season of the hit drama introduced viewers to more traditional Korean games, such as Gonggi, which proved to be one of the most challenging stations in the stressful six-leg pentathlon.
Viewers were also enthralled by the haunting take on Mingle, in which players had to bundle into rooms with the correct number after a whimsical spin on a carousel – with failure reaping lethal consequences.
Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had kept quiet on which games will be included in the third and final season of Squid Game, but all is being revealed as the episodes drop on Netflix.
Here's your guide to the three terrifying games in Squid Game season 3.
Game 1: Hide and Seek

How do you play Squid Game's Hide and Seek? This twisted take on the classic childhood game divides the players into hiders and seekers using a random draw from a gumball machine.
Prior to the game commencing, they are allowed to swap roles with another consenting player, but such deals are strictly prohibited after the activity gets underway.
Hiders are first released into a labyrinthine maze of rooms and corridors, getting a head start of just a few minutes in order to get ahead of their pursuers.
Using the keys around their neck, they can open doors that release them into new sections of the maze, but they cannot lock the doors behind them – meaning every unlocked passageway is a clue to the seekers as to their whereabouts.
In an added twist, it soon becomes apparent that the locks are different shapes (squares, circles and triangles), meaning that hiders must either form trios or acquire all three types of key in order to escape the maze.
Comparatively, the seekers have the simpler job of simply finding and killing a hider – they must do so before the timer ticks down or face elimination themselves. Seeker on seeker kills are against the rules.
Game 2: Jump Rope

How do you play Squid Game's Jump Rope? This game is a lot more straight-forward than the elaborate Hide and Seek, as players are simply tasked with jumping over a giant mechanical skipping rope as they make their way towards a finish line.
The catch is that the path to safety is a narrow beam positioned over a deep chasm, meaning that failing to jump at the correct time sends players plummeting to their certain death.
A fear of heights, mobility issues or a poor judge of timing are all factors that could spell certain doom in this challenge, not to mention the aggressive and cruel strategies of other players.
Game 3: Sky Squid Game

How do you play Sky Squid Game? Bearing little resemblance to its namesake – a Korean playground activity that was featured as one of the season 1 games – Sky Squid Game becomes more about negotiation and trickery than anything else.
The circle, triangle and square shapes usually traced on the ground are now high-storey platforms; a minimum of one player must be eliminated on each of the three stages, with the remaining contestants tasked with deciding amongst themselves who each should be.
Under these rules, it would be possible for several players to reach the end of the Squid Game and split the enormous jackpot between them, but greed gets the better of the group who swiftly attempt to whittle their numbers down for a larger share.
It's the kind of selfish behaviour that The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun, above) counts on provoking from his subjects, setting up an unsolvable conundrum to be resolved in the season 3 finale.
Squid Game seasons 1-3 are available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.