Panem is a nation with 12 districts, ruled by a dictator. The population of Panem is divided into these districts based on class hierarchy. For instance, District 1 has the wealthiest individuals, District 2 is comparatively less wealthy than District 1, and District 12 has the most underprivileged people. In Panem, there are two historically popular games.

The first is the Hunger Games, where 25 participants from each district are chosen via voting and are left in a wild environment where their ability to survive is tested. The gamemasters design multiple threats to ensure that most participants die, and the last one remaining is given a seat in the dictator's court and an opportunity to move to District 1.

The second is the Quid Game, a variation of the original Squid Games where 400 participants are randomly selected from the entire nation of Panem, all of whom play popular children's games. There are 10 games, to be played in increasing order of difficulty. Those who fail to complete these games are killed on the spot by the gamemasters. The wealthy can place bets on the game, and all the money collected from these bets is given to the survivors. If more than one person survives after all 10 games, the amount is divided equally among the survivors.

Seong Gi-hun is the winner of last year's squid games. With his own motivations, he has also joined the squid games this year. After 4 rounds of games, there are two broad alliances. A group of people led by Seong Gi-hun: called anti-gamers, who want to end the games, and a group of people led by adversaries who want to continue playing the game called pro-gamers. If the majority votes for the game to end, the games would end. Currently, both groups have the same number of members. Seong Gi hun is aware that the organisers of the game, shut down the lights in the room to cause panic after the 4th round of games

A limited game has limited number of rounds, and everyone who survives at the end of those rounds wins, and shares the reward. An unlimited game is one, where there are unlimited number of rounds, and players participate in the game until everyone but the winner is dead, and the winner gets the entire reward.