Squid Game is a South Korean streaming television series on Netflix created by Hwang Dong-hyuk. Its first season was released worldwide on September 17, 2021, followed by a second season on December 26, 2024 and a third, final season released on June 27th, 2025.
The series revolves around a secret contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children's games for the chance to win a billion prize (100 million per person killed). Due to the positive critical reception and general worldwide popularity of both seasons released thus far, the series has won and was nominated for numerous awards.
O Yeong-su's Golden Globe win made him the first Korean-born actor to win the award. The show's four SAG Award nominations also made history in it becoming the first non-English series and first Korean series to be nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Individually, Lee Jung-jae became the first male actor from Asia and Korea to receive an individual SAG Award nomination for television and Jung Ho-yeon became the second actress of Asian as well as Korean descent to do the same. With both performers winning, the show made history in becoming the first non-English language television series to win at the SAG Awards.
Squid Game is also the first non-English television series to receive nominations and to win the Primetime Emmy Awards. It received 14 nominations, winning 6 of them, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. The winning of these awards respectively made actor Lee Jung-jae, director Hwang Dong-Hyuk, and actress Lee Yoo-mi to become the first Asians and Koreans to receive an Emmy.
Awards and nominations Award Year Category Nominee(s) Result AFI Awards 2021 Special Award Squid Game American Cinema Editors Awards 2022 Best Edited Drama Series Nam Na-young (for "Gganbu") APAN Star Awards 2022 Drama of the Year Squid Game Best Director Hwang Dong-hyuk Top Excellence Award, Actor in an OTT Drama Lee Jung-jae Excellence Award, Actor in an OTT Drama Park Hae-soo Excellence Award, Actor in an OTT Drama O Yeong-su Excellence Award, Actress in an OTT Drama Lee Yoo-mi Best Supporting Actor Heo Sung-tae Best New ActressJung Ho-yeon Popularity Star Award, Actress Art Directors Guild Awards 2021 Excellence in Production Design for a One-Hour Contemporary Single-Camera Series Chae Kyoung-sun (for "Gganbu") 2025 Excellence in Production Design for a One-Hour Contemporary Single-Camera Series Chae Kyoung-sun (for "Six Legs" and "O X") 2026 Excellence in Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series Squid Game: The Challenge: "Catch" – Mathieu Weekes and Ben Norman Asia Artist Awards 2021Actor of the Year Lee Jung-jae Hot Trend Award Fabulous Award Best Actor AwardHeo Sung-tae Kim Joo-ryoung Astra TV Awards 2026 Reality Competition Series Squid Game: The Challenge Baeksang Arts Awards 2022 Grand Prize – TelevisionSquid Game Best Drama Best Director Hwang Dong-hyuk Best Actor Lee Jung-jae Best Supporting Actor Heo Sung-tae Best Supporting Actress Kim Joo-ryoung Best New Actress Jung Ho-yeon Best Screenplay Hwang Dong-hyuk Baeksang Arts Technical Award (Art direction) Chae Kyung-sun Baeksang Arts Technical Award (Music) Jung Jae-il 2025 Best Supporting ActorRoh Jae-won Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022 Best Drama Squid Game Best Actor Lee Jung-jae Best Supporting Actor Park Hae-soo Best Supporting Actress Kim Joo-ryoung Best New Actress HoYeon Jung British Academy Television Awards 2022 Best International Programme Squid Game Virgin TV's Must-See Moment "Red Light, Green Light" 2026 Best Reality Squid Game: The Challenge British Academy Television Craft Awards 2026 Best Entertainment Craft Team Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2022 Series Film Award Squid Game Cinema Audio Society Awards 2021 Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Series – One Hour Park Hyeon-Soo, Serge Perron, Cameron Sloan (for "VIPS") Costume Designers Guild Awards 2021 Excellence in Contemporary Television Jo Sang-gyeong(for "VIPS") Critics' Choice Awards 2021 Best Drama Series Squid Game Best Actor in a Drama Series Lee Jung-jae Best Foreign Language Series Squid Game 2025 2026 Critics' Choice Real TV Awards 2026 Best Competition Series Squid Game: The Challenge Critics' Choice Super Awards 2022 Best Action Series Squid Game Best Actor in an Action Series Lee Jung-jae Best Actress in an Action Series HoYeon Jung Kim Joo-ryoung Director's Cut Awards 2026 Best Director (Series) Squid Game S3 : Hwang Dong-hyuk Dorian TV Awards 2025Best Non-English Language TV Show Squid Game 2026 Gold List TV 2025 Outstanding Series Squid Game Outstanding Lead Performance Lee Jung-jae Outstanding Directing Hwang Dong-hyuk Golden Globe Awards 2021 Best Television Series – Drama Squid Game Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama Lee Jung-jae Best Supporting Actor – Television O Yeong-su 2025 Best Television Series – Drama Squid Game Gold Derby TV Awards2025Ensemble of the Year Drama Series Drama Actor Lee Jung-jae Drama Supporting ActressKang Ae-sim Park Gyu-young Drama Supporting Actor Lee Byung-hun Choi Seung-hyun Drama Guest ActorGong Yoo Golden Reel Awards 2021 Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Series 1 Hour – Comedy or Drama – Dialogue and ADR Hye-Young Kang, Tae-Young Choi, Byung-In Kim, Eun-Ji Ye (for "VIPS") Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Series 1 Hour – Comedy or Drama – Sound Effects and Foley Hye-Young Kang, Ye-Jin Jo, Hye-Jin Yang, Taek-Hyun Hong, Chung-Gyu Lee (for "VIPS") Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Series 1 Hour – Comedy or Drama – Music Jae-il Jung (for "Red Light, Green Light") Golden Trailer Awards 2026Best Foreign (Trailer/Teaser) – TV/Streaming Series Squid Game S3: Trailer, “Faith”, Netflix, RAVE Collective Best Original Score (Trailer/Teaser) – TV/Streaming Series Squid Game S3: Special Teaser, “Goodbye Squid Game”, Netflix, RAVE Collective Best Horror/Thriller Poster (for a TV/streaming series) Squid Game S3, Coffin Teaser, Netflix, The Refinery Gotham Awards 2021 Breakthrough Series – Long Form Kim Ji-yeon and Hwang Dong-hyuk Outstanding Performance in a New Series Lee Jung-jae Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards 2022 Best Streaming Series, Drama Squid Game Best International Series Best Actor in a Streaming Series, Drama Lee Jung-jae Best Supporting Actor in a Streaming Series, Drama Park Hae-soo Best Supporting Actress in a Streaming Series, Drama HoYeon Jung Best Directing in a Streaming Series, Drama Hwang Dong-hyuk Best Writing in a Streaming Series, Drama Hwang Dong-hyuk Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2021 Score - TV Show/Limited Series Jung Jae-il Independent Spirit Awards 2022 Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series Lee Jung-jae Korea Drama Awards2025Top Excellence Award, Actor Kang Ha-neul Korea First Brand Awards 2026 K-Culture Icon Squid Game MTV Movie & TV Awards 2022 Best Show Best Breakthrough Performance Jung Ho-yeon People's Choice Awards 2021 Bingeworthy Show of the Year Squid Game Primetime Emmy Awards 2022 Outstanding Drama Series Kim Ji-yeon and Hwang Dong-hyuk Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Lee Jung-jae Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Park Hae-soo Oh Yeong-su Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Jung Ho-yeon Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Hwang Dong-hyuk Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Hwang Dong-hyuk Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards 2022 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Lee Yoo-mi Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour or More) Chae Kyoung-sun, Gim En-jee and Kim Jeong-gun Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-Camera Series (One Hour) Lee Hyung-deok Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Nam Na-young Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music Jung Jae-il Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode Cheong Jai-hoon, Kang Moon-jung, Kim Hye-jin, Jo Hyun-jin, Kim Seong-chul, Lee Jae-bum, Shin Min-soo, Seok Jong-yeon and Jun Sung-man Outstanding Stunt Performance Lim Tae-hoon, Shim Sang-min, Kim Cha-i and Lee Tae-young Producers Guild of America Awards 2021 Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – DramaSquid Game Rose d'Or 2021 Drama Program Squid Game Satellite Awards 2025 Best Drama Series Squid Game Saturn Awards 2022 Best Streaming Horror/Thriller Television Series Squid Game 2026 Best Action / Adventure Television Series Screen Actors Guild Awards 2021 Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Hoyeon Jung, Anupam Tripathi, Heo Sung-tae, O Yeong-su, and Kim Joo-ryoung Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Lee Jung-jae Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Jung Ho-yeon Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series Squid Game 2026 Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television SeriesSquid Game Television Critics Association Awards 2022 Program of the Year Squid Game Outstanding Achievement in Drama Individual Achievement in Drama Lee Jung-jae 2026 Outstanding International Series – New Category Squid Game Visual Effects Society Awards 2022Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode Jaihoon Jung, Hyejin Kim, Hyungrok Kim, Sungman Jun
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