Popular YouTube content creator Mr. Beast is known for doing massive projects that cost a significant amount of money. The creator is taking things to the next level, though, as he just recently recreated Netflix's Squid Game in real life. Just like in the TV show, contestants have to compete in challenges to earn money and if they fail, they're terminated from the competition.
Squid Game is a South Korean TV series picked up by Netflix that blew up in popularity this year. YouTube's Mr. Beast decided to put his own twist on the games that unfold in the Netflix series. Mr. Beast's version of the games cost $3.5 million, including the various cash prizes contestants earned.
Mr. Beast gathered 456 players for his Squid Game, just like the original player count of the popular Netflix series. The total pot for the winner of Mr. Beast's version of the show was $456,000, with the YouTube content creator offering smaller prizes to players who drop out early. The results of each game are shown in a common room similar to the one filled with bunk beds in the Netflix TV series, with Mr. Beast surrounded by faceless assistants, some of whom are revealed to be his usual crew of helpers.
Starting similarly to the original Squid Game, Mr. Beast's version begins with the classic children's game Red Light, Green Light. Participants are given thirty minutes to cross a nearly perfect recreation of the first competition in the show, complete with the ominous doll on the other end of the red line. Unlike Squid Game, Mr. Beast's contestants don't get fatally shot, but they are rigged with a device that pops like a gunshot when they're eliminated.
Copying more than just the games and aesthetics of Squid Game, Mr. Beast also dangled the cash prize above the 232 survivors of the first round. These survivors went on to compete in Honeycomb, a game that requires them to recreate symbols shown on the wall of the second room that perfectly emulated the show. Mr. Beast's Squid Game players were given a needle and a cookie, with the intent that they use the cookie to create the symbols, but most of them ended up chewing the cookies until the symbols emerged.
Mr. Beast's third competition for his Squid Game players was a simple tug-of-war between teams that the contestants created ahead of time. To survive the next game, Mr. Beasts contestants had to negotiate marbles from others who were doomed to fail at acquiring the ultimate prize. Instead of resorting to a massive brawl for the fifth game, Mr. Beast gave his contestants a game of Ddakji to play in order to discover the winner. Ddakji was used in the Squid Game TV series to recruit gambling addicts into competing in the life-threatening games.
The final Squid Game contestants in Mr. Beast's expensive YouTube show had to cross a bridge that had a high chance of dropping them onto a pile of foam. The six players who triumphed in this competition went on to eat a steak dinner at a triangular table before going on to discover the final winner with a game of musical chairs. The ultimate winner of Mr. Beast's first YouTube Squid Game was number 79, who won $456,000, with runner-up number 330 winning $10,000.
Source: PC Gamer