The TV series Squid game was released on Netflix during this year's big Korean holiday, chuseok.

It had been expected that the local audience would gather in front of the TV with the whole family.

The global success was all the more a surprise, according to Lee Gyu-Lee, cultural journalist at The Korea times, who followed the hype of recent weeks.

- The director (Hwang Dong-hyuk) himself was surprised.

In an interview I did recently, he said that even though it was aimed at a global audience from the beginning, he did not expect it to become so hugely popular so quickly, she says.

The recipe for success

Squid game has been compared to Hunger Games and Battle Royale.

It's about people at the bottom of society who have been recruited for a game - with a huge prize pool.

All they have to do is compete in traditional Korean games - with life at stake.

- The irony that it is so simple and fun games that are transformed into deadly, bloody, brutal survival games, became very interesting to see, says Lee Gyu-Lee.

The dystopian games face real events, as the main character Seong Gi-hun's story is based on a true story about a man who lost his job at a car factory after a strike that ended in great unrest.

- The director also covers the big gaps in our unequal society.

Indebted people who are willing to risk their lives to maybe get a jackpot.

All for the pleasure of the rich upper class.

- It really speaks to the global audience.

Especially right now, when many are having a hard time both financially and emotionally, she says.

Memes and hysteria

Squid game is the world's most streamed Netflix series right now - and it shows in social media where many memes are circulating.

And at Tiktok, the challenge is where you have to carve out a shape in a rock-hard cake made of sugar and bicarbonate.

The traditional sweet, dalgona, has gained momentum on the streets of South Korea.

- The director said that they were joking that the series would create a dalgona hysteria.

And so it happened in the end, says cultural journalist Lee Gyu-Lee.

See pieces from the Squid game in the clip above.