Squid Game vs. Alice In Borderland

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Squid Games V.S Alice in Borderland

After the release of Squid Game, the now worldwide famous and what people are calling "the most popular show of all time", many people started questioning: Why Squid Game? Of all the many well-known and loved dramas within the community of drama fans, why was Squid Game the one to completely take over the internet, as well as Netflix's number one spot?  Why not other dramas? One title, in particular, has been brought up over and over again within this discussion, this being another Netflix original drama: Alice in Borderland.

Should Alice in Borderland have been the one to take the world by storm? And why instead did Squid Game?

Comparing and contrasting Squid Game and Alice in Borderland

Although the two are entirely different in plot and concept, they share similarities that have brought fans to wonder why one became so popular, and the other didn't. Their ratings here on MyDramaList are only 0.2 distance away from each other: Alice in Borderland taking the lead with an 8.8 out of 10, Squid Game following with an 8.6 rating. They both contain the concept of "death games", although in very different forms. They both contain thrill and gore, exciting survival concepts (and, of course, many characters viewers loved to admire). However, it's the differences that decided the fate of each one's popularity.

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Alice in Borderland caught attention with its unique plot following three friends, as they mysteriously find themselves in a familiar yet entirely different place. Forced to participate in death games involving strength, wits, teamwork and emotions in order to live. The show keeps you guessing all the way through and has twists we never saw coming.

One flaw that I think affected Alice in Borderland's popularity was the lack of recognizable symbols. By this, I mean recognizable aspects from the show fans can interact with, joke about, and create their own scenarios. Everything fans like to do. None of the games can be recreated in real life, and the only symbol Alice in Borderland had been the playing cards, which doesn't amount to much in terms of fan interaction.

Alice in Borderland did a really great job of bringing us to tears but also showing the emotions of the characters. Throughout the show, we witnessed grief, guilt, desperation, fear, love, greed and desire. We saw people struggle with the past, and people go insane and lose their humanity. Witnessing their different motivations to live and some desires to die. All of this created a story that drew us in and helped us to better empathize with the characters.

Squid Game did a great job of giving us characters we could love and adore, simp over and hate. They gave us a variety, so many people had different favorites and different people to root for. This made the show more fun (and stressful) as you could never guess if your favorite would make it or not.

Squid Game revolves around social commentary on capitalism as well as the concept of human greed and humanity. It explores the concept of morals and how they would be tested within a situation such as the one presented in the show. Ordinary people are desperate for money all for different reasons, living and fighting for their lives among the people who would have to die if they were to win and take home the prize: money. 

Squid Game had several deeply emotional and tear-jerking scenes throughout the show. We cried with the characters and shared their pain. We grieved characters we had come to love. The show also presented us with many different kinds of emotional themes such as family, loss, betrayal, friendship, and sacrifice. 

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I would say both shows were about the same as far as characters were concerned. Each one had many different well-loved characters that added to the respective shows and made them more enjoyable to watch. Having characters to love and root for, as well as characters to despise and wish the worst, is a big part of what makes shows fun to watch.

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The plots and concepts of each show can't really be compared. They were too different, and even with the similarities they do share, the differences are still too huge to allow us a proper comparison. Both did an excellent job with their respective plots and concepts, so for this, it really comes down to a matter of personal preference.

Squid Game

Squid Game beat Alice in Borderland by a landslide as far as symbols go. Symbols were the one thing Alice in Borderland lacked, but Squid Game had endless amounts. There's only so much content people could make with Alice in Borderland, whereas Squid Game had a new trend every week. 

Fans took over social media, making memes and videos and theories. Parody games were even made on platforms, such as TikTok (social media video platform) and Roblox (Gaming platform, typically for children, but used by all ages). Squid Game trends took over the internet in a matter of days, drawing more and more attention the more content was made.

Squid Game

Although both shows were filled with emotional scenes and deaths that tore fans apart, I would say Squid Game seemed to win in this category. This is likely because Alice in Borderland only had one scene that truly tore viewers apart, whereas Squid Game had several throughout the series.