Squid Game fans flock to cafe to play games from the show

More than 132 million viewers have watched some Squid Game in the first 23 days of being released. Now, eager fans are flocking to an Indonesian cafe to take part in games from Netflix’s most successful survival drama.

Strawberry Cafe in Jakarta introduced the Squid Game challenges in a bid to recover from the pandemic and now, more than 200 customers head to the cafe every day and have tripled the cafe’s earnings.

Customers are greeted by staff dressed as the show’s murderous guards before taking part in the dalgona candy challenge and the notorious Green Light, Red Light game in a dark room lit with neon colours.

Putra Priyadi, Strawberry Cafe owner, said: “Before this, when there was a PPKM (Enforcement of Community Activity Restrictions), our income fell sharply. However, after the PPKM rules were relaxed, our sales began to recover and increase slightly,”

“But after we started the Squid Game event, our sales rose significantly right away.”

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The Squid Game challenges have also proven successful with customers. Despite failing to complete the games, 16-year-old student Jennifer Susanto said, “Not all cafes would actually imitate and make it exactly like in the real show. I think it’s unique and exciting so everyone can feel how tense the Squid Game show is.”

While Netflix hasn’t made any formal announcement of a season two, it’s’ highly likely the hit show will return to screens. Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk said:

“I don’t have well-developed plans for Squid Game 2. It is quite tiring just thinking about it. But if I were to do it, I would certainly not do it alone. I’d consider using a writers’ room and would want multiple experienced directors,”

“It took me six months to write and rewrite the first two episodes. Then I consulted verbally with friends, and picked up clues for improvements through my own pitching and from their responses.”