‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Arrives With Worse Reviews Than Season 1

Squid Game season 2 has finally arrived after three years, the follow-up to the most-watched Netflix series of all time which has become a full-on brand for the service. A second season was never supposed to exist in the first place, but with how successful it was, there was no choice, it seemed.

However, as very early reviews roll in, these initial scores are below what they were for season 1, at least so far. Though it may end up being no surprise a follow-up is not going to quite capture the viral magic of the original. Here’s the score difference right now, though I will update it over time as more reviews come in:

• Squid Game Season 1 – 95% critic score, 84% audience score
• Squid Game Season 2 – 83% critic score, 63% audience score

So not bad by any means, but lower than season 1. Some of the negative reviews critique that the series has been cut from 9 episodes to just 7, a symptom of streaming culture where…it can take three years to make seven episodes of a new season of a show.

The main question about Squid Game season 2 is not critic scores, but rather viewership. Again, Squid Game is the most-watched show in Netflix history by a decent margin. Here’s the top 10 list for all-timer viewership:

1. Squid Game season – 2.2 billion hours viewed, 265.2 million views
2. Stranger Things season 4 – 1.83 billion hours viewed, 140.7 million views
3. Wednesday season 1 – 1.72 billion hours viewed, 252.1 million views
4. Dahmer – 1.03 billion hours viewed, 115.6 million views
5. Bridgerton season 1 – 929.3 million hours viewed, 113.3 million views
6. Bridgerton season 3 – 846.5 million hours viewed, 106 million views
7. The Night Agent season 1 – 803.2 million hours viewed, 98 million views
8. The Queen’s Gambit – 746.4 million hours viewed, 112.8 million views
9. Money Heist: Part 4 – 710.2 million hours viewed, 106 million views
10. Fool Me Once – 629 million hours viewed, 98.2 million views

So, you can see here that sometimes, later seasons of shows have big jumps in viewership like Stranger Things. Others, like Bridgerton, peak at season 1, even if other seasons also do well. What will Squid Game do? My guess is that it cannot reach those heights as the original was such a viral sensation I just don’t think it’s going to be possible to repeat that. It feels less necessary than getting through the full arc of Stranger Things, but rather like something Netflix had to make regardless of whether it was what people were actually were dying to see, no pun intended.

That said, it will do well, of course. It may even be a sure thing for the top 10 or top 5 list, just based on the original alone. But #1 or #2? I very much doubt that.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.