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"$456,000 ''Squid Game'' in Real Life!" is a
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
video by American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, known on the platform as
MrBeast James Stephen "Jimmy" Donaldson (born May 7, 1998), commonly known by his online alias MrBeast, is an American YouTuber, media personality, and businessman. His YouTube videos, where he often hosts elaborate challenges and philanthropic effor ...
. The video, released on November 24, 2021, is a competition based on the games featured in the 2021 South Korean
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
show ''
Squid Game ''Squid Game'' () is a South Korean Utopian and dystopian fiction, dystopian Survival film, survival Thriller (genre)#Television, thriller horror television series created, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. The series revol ...
''. Donaldson began work on the video in October 2021. Partially funded by Finnish video game developer
Supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone, a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (su ...
to promote its
mobile game A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any Mobile device, portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet computer, table ...
''
Brawl Stars ''Brawl Stars'' is a multiplayer online battle arena and third-person hero shooter video game developed and published by Finnish video game company Supercell (company), Supercell. The game was released worldwide on 12 December 2018, on iOS an ...
'', the video cost to produce, of which $2 million was spent on sets and production and $1.5 million was given as cash prizes to the contestants. Donaldson recreated several of the show's sets for the video. As in the show, the 456 players competed in a series of games until only one player remained. After the video was published on November 24, 2021, it quickly received over 100 million views and became MrBeast's most-viewed video (not including
Shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ar ...
). , it has received over 815 million views. Publications praised Donaldson for his accurate recreations of the sets, but some critics saw the video as unoriginal and a misunderstanding of ''Squid Game''s
anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...
themes. Donaldson later created a second video with a similar theme, "
50 YouTubers Fight for $1,000,000 "50 YouTubers Fight for $1,000,000" is a YouTube video by American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, known on the platform as MrBeast. The video, described by Donaldson as his "biggest video ever," featured fifty YouTubers from around the world competin ...
", which featured a challenge adapting the
dalgona ''Dalgona'' () or ''ppopgi'' () is a Korean candy made with melted sugar and baking soda originating from South Korea. It is a popular street snack from the 1960s, and is still eaten as a retro food. When a pinch of baking soda is mixed into mel ...
-cutting "game" from ''Squid Game''. He also developed an
Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
television series, ''
Beast Games ''Beast Games'' is a 2024 reality competition television series created by YouTuber Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, Tyler Conklin, Sean Klitzner, and Mack Hopkins. Hosted by Donaldson, ''Beast Games'' follows 1,000 contestants—the largest cast fo ...
'', which was similar in concept but did not use ''Squid Game'' branding.


Background

''
Squid Game ''Squid Game'' () is a South Korean Utopian and dystopian fiction, dystopian Survival film, survival Thriller (genre)#Television, thriller horror television series created, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. The series revol ...
'' is a South Korean television series developed by
Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk (; born May 26, 1971) is a South Korean film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for creating the Netflix survival drama series ''Squid Game'' (2021–present) and the crime drama film ''Silenced'' (2011). D ...
and first released on
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
in 2021. The show centers around a fictional
game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...
in which 456 indebted contestants compete to the death in variants of traditional
children's games This is a list of games that are played by children. Traditional children's games do not include commercial products such as board games but do include games which require props such as hopscotch or marbles (toys go in List of toys unless the toy ...
to win a large cash prize. The show received critical acclaim and became Netflix's most-viewed show in its first month. In November 2021, Josh Coulson of ''TheGamer'' described ''Squid Game'' as a "worldwide phenomenon". Jimmy Donaldson created the
YouTube channel YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San B ...
MrBeast in 2012. The channel rose to popularity in 2017 for Donaldson's stunts and challenges, which tend to be philanthropic, ambitious, and expensive. MrBeast became one of the most-subscribed YouTube channels, with 75.9 million subscribers by the time "$456,000 ''Squid Game'' in Real Life!" was released.


Production

On October 11, 2021, Donaldson published a video on
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
saying he would recreate ''Squid Game'' if the video received 10 million likes, which was achieved. Work on the video began in mid-October. YouTuber William Osman was hired by Donaldson to lead an engineering team to create blood squibs to explode with
fake blood Theo Keating, also known as Fake Blood and Touché, is an English DJ, musician and music producer who made his name as one half of the Wiseguys, a British hip hop/big beat group, together with Paul Eve. Some of their best-known songs are " Sta ...
on a contestant's elimination; Osman was given three weeks to deliver five hundred of the devices. "$456,000 ''Squid Game'' in Real Life!" cost to produce. The video was sponsored and partially funded by
Supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone, a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (su ...
to promote its mobile game ''
Brawl Stars ''Brawl Stars'' is a multiplayer online battle arena and third-person hero shooter video game developed and published by Finnish video game company Supercell (company), Supercell. The game was released worldwide on 12 December 2018, on iOS an ...
''. $2 million of the budget was spent on sets and production, while the remaining $1.5 million was used for cash prizes. Matt Pearce of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' noted that the video cost $134,600 per screen minute to produce, while ''Squid Game'' itself cost approximately $43,500 per screen minute. Donaldson recreated several sets from the show, including the contestants' bunk room, the tug of war platform, and the indoor playground. Some of the post-production was completed by visual effects company SoKrispyMedia.


Video

"$456,000 ''Squid Game'' in Real Life!" is a recreation based on ''Squid Game'' and is not intended to be a parody, according to ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
''. Donaldson cast 456 contestants, and a $456,000 prize was awarded to the winner. Eliminated players are given at least $2000 each as a
consolation prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.
. Mirroring the show, the players competed in a series of games, each reducing the number of players. The games were, in order:
Red Light, Green Light Statues, also known as Red Light, Green Light in North America, and Grandma's/Grandmother's Footsteps or Fairy Footsteps in the United Kingdom is a popular children's game, often played in different countries. There are variations of play thr ...
; the
Dalgona ''Dalgona'' () or ''ppopgi'' () is a Korean candy made with melted sugar and baking soda originating from South Korea. It is a popular street snack from the 1960s, and is still eaten as a retro food. When a pinch of baking soda is mixed into mel ...
game; the marble game;
tug-of-war Tug of war (also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war, rope pulling, or tugging war) is a sport in which two teams compete by pulling on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal of bringing the rope a certain distance in one direction against ...
; '' ddakji;'' the glass bridge challenge; and
musical chairs Musical chairs, also known as Trip to Jerusalem, is a game of elimination involving players, chairs, and music. It is a staple of many parties worldwide. Gameplay A set of chairs is arranged in a circle with one fewer chair than the numbe ...
. There were some deviations from the show: Donaldson's game included ''ddakji'' as a round, which was featured in the show but not as a game round. Additionally, the final round was musical chairs instead of the show's titular
Squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...
. The winner of the grand prize was player 079.


Release and reception

The video was published to the MrBeast YouTube channel on November 24, 2021. The video reached 100 million views within three days and quickly became one of Donaldson's most-viewed videos. ''Brawl Stars'' saw a 41 percent increase in downloads and a 54 percent increase in revenue within six days of the video's release. Interviewed at the 2021
Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...
, ''Squid Game'' creator
Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk (; born May 26, 1971) is a South Korean film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for creating the Netflix survival drama series ''Squid Game'' (2021–present) and the crime drama film ''Silenced'' (2011). D ...
responded to the video, saying "I loved it, and it helped me to promote the show, too, so I want more people to do it." Jennifer Bisset of CNET described the re-enactment as "scarily real-looking", and journalists from ''Polygon'' and
Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...
described it as "perfect". Reality TV editor Katherine Griffin likened the video to reality television for its style and length, but disapproved of its lack of credits for the editors. Charles Cameron of ''
Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and comic books. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publications including Comic Book Resources, Collider, MovieWeb and XDA Developers. ...
'' praised the video's faithful re-enactment and called it an "admirable homage", but criticized its use of
product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of t ...
for "ruin ngthe immersion". After the view count of "$456,000 ''Squid Game'' in Real Life!" surpassed that of ''Squid Game'' itself on Netflix, YouTube's former head of creator product marketing, Jon Youshaei, tweeted in praise. He wrote that the video having a higher view count, a shorter production time, and "fewer gatekeepers" than ''Squid Game'' exemplified "the promise of the
creator economy The creator economy or also known as creator marketing and influencer economy, is a software-driven economy that is built around creators who produce and distribute content, products, or services directly to their audience, leveraging social me ...
." The tweet was criticized by publications and Internet users for ignoring the differences between the production of a television series and that of a YouTube video, and for apparently dismissing Donaldson's debt to the creators of ''Squid Game''. Youshaei ultimately deleted his tweet. Critiquing the concept of the creator economy in response to Youshaei, Amanda Silberling of ''
TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...
'' noted how creators who make high-budget videos must continuously increase their budgets such that viewers do not "become desensitized" to their production value and novelty. As Donaldson has stated that he makes "razor-thin rofitmargins" on his videos, Silberling argued that these increases in expenditure are unsustainable, writing "the success of
he video He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
may be better news for YouTube, or even Netflix, than it is for Donaldson". Gita Jackson of ''
Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...
'' and Hussein Kesvani of ''Polygon'' saw the video as exemplary of a "fundamental" problem of YouTube: derivative and unoriginal content which profits from the work of others (e.g.
reaction video A reaction video, or a react video, is a video in which one or more persons react to something. Videos showing the emotional reactions, criticism or commentary of people viewing movies, television series episodes, film trailers, music videos, news, ...
s); Kesvani described the video as the "logical conclusion of this creator economy". Donaldson received criticism from some journalists and the wider online public for a perceived misunderstanding of ''Squid Game'''s
anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...
themes. Jackson called the video "perverse" and a "recreation of the villain's ultimate desire to watch desperate people compete for money purely for his amusement". According to Silberling, the video lacked the "emotional resonance and suspense" of the show because the contestants faced no risk of punishment for losing. Tyler Wilde of ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'' considered it "hard to declare that $3.5 million spent on a YouTube video and cash prizes is bad, but $21.4 million spent on a Netflix show is good" in light of criticism of the video's large budget, calling it "about as accurate recreationas you can get without actually shooting anyone". Matt Pearce of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' described stylistic differences between the show and the video, such as the replacement of ''Squid Game'''s "high-minded social commentary" with "the MrBeast house style of upbeat stunt philanthropy". Pearce noted the "narrative efficiency" of its extensive use of fast cuts, music changes, and sound effects and graphics in the style of American
reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
. Like Donaldson's other videos, the video uses
clickbait Clickbait (also known as link bait or linkbait) is a text or a thumbnail hyperlink, link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and view, read, stream or listen to the linked piece of online cont ...
marketing and an "outrageously absurd" premise to convince viewers to watch, a style that Donaldson has "pioneered and perfected" according to Amanda Silberling of ''
TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...
''.


See also

* '' Squid Game: The Challenge'', a 2023 reality television series


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:456000 Squid Game in Real Life! 2020s American game shows 2021 YouTube videos MrBeast Works based on Squid Game 2020s viral videos