Squid Game Filming Locations: The Real Seoul Spots You Can Actually Visit

Here's the question every Squid Game fan eventually asks: can I actually go stand in the Red Light, Green Light arena? The honest answer is no — that room doesn't exist anywhere in the real world, and most "10 real Squid Game locations" listicles online won't tell you that clearly. What does exist is a specific, mappable set of real Seoul neighborhoods, a subway station with the actual show's name still on the wall, and one privately owned island that half the internet insists you can visit and actually can't.

This is the real map: what's a set, what's a street, and what you can genuinely go stand in on your next Seoul trip.

The Games Were Never Real Rooms — Here's Where They Were Actually Built

Every iconic set — the giant doll's arena, the candy-colored staircases, the tug-of-war platform built more than 10 meters off the ground, the dalgona tables, the glass bridge, the marbles alley — was built from scratch inside Studio Cube, a soundstage complex at Daejeon Expo Science Park, about two hours south of Seoul by train. Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun has said directly in interviews that the team rented three to four large studios and spent roughly two months building before filming even started, and that "all spaces in the game world are built in sets, rather than using existing locations." Season 2's version of the set was built even bigger, described in Netflix's own production notes as going up "like a Lego module."

Studio Cube is Korea's largest film studio, built by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism through the Korea Creative Content Agency and opened in 2017 specifically to give Korean productions a domestic alternative to shooting overseas. It is not set up as a public studio tour the way Warner Bros.' Los Angeles lot is — it's an active, closed production facility. You can walk the public science park grounds around it and see the building from outside, but there's no ticketed way to walk through the actual game sets. If an article promises you can "tour the Squid Game set," that's the detail it's skipping.

The Real Locations You Can Actually Stand In

Outside the game arena itself, Squid Game shot plenty of ordinary scenes — Gi-hun's neighborhood, the recruitment scene, the finale confrontation — in real, still-standing Seoul locations. These are the ones with strong sourcing behind them.

A handful of other spots — a bus terminal, a small arcade, a market — show up in single-source reporting rather than being cross-confirmed across multiple outlets, so treat those as "likely, but unverified to the same standard" if you see them elsewhere.

Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station: The One With the Actual Sign Still Up

Of everywhere on this list, this is the easiest to verify with your own eyes. The recruitment scene — a stranger in a suit slapping a businessman across the face over a game of ddakji — was filmed right at this Sinbundang Line station, and the Korean-and-English station signage overhead ("양재시민의숲 (매헌) / Yangjae Citizen's Forest (Maeheon)") is the exact sign visible in the show.

It's a normal, working subway station attached to an actual public forest park, so there's no admission fee and nothing to book — you just ride the Sinbundang Line like anyone else.

Yeouido and IFC Mall: Season 1's Finale Backdrop

Yeouido is Seoul's financial district, sitting on an island in the Han River, and it's where Season 1 closes out its confrontation between Gi-hun and Oh Il-nam. The skyline itself — the red-striped Parc.1 towers alongside the Three IFC/IFC Mall cluster — is the same skyline visible in that sequence, and it's one of the most recognizable modern skylines in Seoul regardless of the show.

Yeouido is a genuinely easy add-on to a Seoul itinerary: it's a short ride from most central Seoul neighborhoods, has a proper riverside park for walking, and IFC Mall itself is a normal shopping/dining complex if you want a reason to actually go inside rather than just photograph the skyline.

Namsan Park: Also Your N Seoul Tower Trip

Season 1's early outdoor and forest sequences were shot in Namsan Park, the large wooded park in the middle of Seoul that's also home to N Seoul Tower. If you're already planning a tower visit, this location needs no detour at all.

If you want the full cable car, love-locks, and night-view experience while you're there, EpicKor's N Seoul Tower guide covers ticket options, the best time of day, and which viewpoint actually has the better skyline.

The Island Everyone Asks About — and Why You Can't Go

If you've searched "Squid Game island," you've probably landed on a claim that the game compound's island exteriors were filmed on a real island called Seongapdo, in Ongjin County off Korea's Incheon coast in the Yellow Sea. That part is true. What most of those articles leave out: Seongapdo is a small, privately owned island with roughly four residents and no public ferry or transit service. It is not a destination you can book a trip to, and there's no legal public way to land there as a tourist. Treat any article suggesting you can "visit the Squid Game island" as either outdated or simply wrong.

A separate, unrelated myth worth killing here too: Jeju Island is name-dropped in the show's dialogue, but it was never actually used as a filming location — it's fictional geography, not a real set location.

"Squid Game: The Experience" — Real, But Not a Location Tour

Netflix does run an official, ticketed immersive attraction called "Squid Game: The Experience," where fans physically compete in recreated (safe, non-lethal) versions of the games. It's real, and it has toured internationally — confirmed runs in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Tokyo, Madrid, and London, with a Jakarta debut set for later in 2026. It's important to be precise about what this is: a themed fan experience built around the games, not a tour of the actual filming locations, and its city stops rotate over time. If you're hoping to do this specifically in Korea, check Netflix's official Tudum page for current dates before planning around it — availability changes, and treating any single article's claim as permanent is a good way to plan a trip around an event that's already moved on.

Korea Tourism Organization's Squid Game Tie-Ins

The Korea Tourism Organization has leaned into the show's popularity with a few real, verifiable projects, distinct from the show itself:

• "Escape to Korea – Better Run" — an official KTO promotional video reimagining Squid Game and All of Us Are Dead visuals as a Korea tourism ad, part of the broader "Challenge Korea" campaign tied to Korea's push for 30 million foreign visitors by 2027. It reportedly drew over 8.4 million views within three weeks of release.
• "A Special Travel Day with Squid Game" — a real, one-day KTO-run experiential event held in central Seoul, taking a small group of invited foreign visitors through tracksuit-clad missions at Gwanghwamun Square, HiKR Ground, and the Han River, including instant-noodle making and a K-pop dance session.
• HiKR Ground, KTO's free public culture center in central Seoul, has hosted Squid Game-themed pop-up exhibits and photo zones at points, though its fourth-floor displays rotate — don't assume a Squid Game exhibit will still be up when you visit; check what's currently showing before making it the centerpiece of a trip.

These are genuinely useful for a reader who wants an official, government-backed Squid Game connection point in Korea itself, separate from the private Netflix pop-up experience above.

Why Filming-Location Tourism Is a Real, Growing Category in Korea

This isn't a Squid Game-only phenomenon. The Korea Tourism Organization has reported that Hallyu-motivated visitor arrivals rose from roughly 63,000 in 2020 to 1.765 million in 2023, with associated tourism revenue reaching an estimated $2.42 billion that year. A separate report cited by Korea Herald, based on LG Uplus data tracking around 80 tourist attractions visited by 1.6 million foreign tourists in Seoul, found that 57.6% of those attractions were Netflix Korean-drama filming locations. Squid Game is the single biggest driver of that pattern, but it's part of a much larger, ongoing trend of K-drama fans building entire itineraries around real filming spots.

Planning Your Own Filming-Location Day

If you want to see the most locations with the least backtracking, Seoul's subway makes most of this genuinely walkable-and-ride-able in a single day: Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station and Yeouido are both reachable without a transfer nightmare, and Namsan Park slots in naturally if you're already doing a tower visit. Daejeon's Studio Cube exterior is the outlier — it's a dedicated day trip by KTX or intercity bus, worth it only if you specifically want to see the real building where the sets were constructed, since there's nothing to see once you arrive beyond the exterior of a working studio.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can you actually visit the Squid Game set? No. Every core game set — the arena, the staircases, the glass bridge — was built from scratch inside Studio Cube, a soundstage at Daejeon Expo Science Park, and it's an active production facility, not a public attraction. You can see the science park's exterior grounds, but not the sets themselves.

Q: Is the Squid Game island real? The exterior island shots were filmed on Seongapdo, a real but privately owned island off Incheon with about four residents and no public ferry access. It's not a place you can actually visit as a tourist.

Q: What real Seoul locations were used in Squid Game? Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station, the Yeouido/IFC Mall skyline, Namsan Park, Ssangmun-dong, Tapgol Park, Seoul Grand Park, and Seogang Bridge are all confirmed, ordinary, publicly reachable Seoul locations used for scenes outside the main game arena.

Q: Is "Squid Game: The Experience" available in Korea? It's a touring, official Netflix attraction that rotates between cities internationally (confirmed runs in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Tokyo, Madrid, and London, with more planned). Availability and city stops change, so check Netflix's official Tudum page for current dates rather than assuming a past article's schedule still holds.

Q: Is filming-location tourism a big deal in Korea beyond Squid Game? Yes. Korea Tourism Organization data shows Hallyu-motivated visitor arrivals grew from about 63,000 in 2020 to 1.765 million in 2023, and one industry report found more than half of the attractions foreign tourists visited in Seoul were Korean-drama filming locations.

Sources and Further Reading

• Netflix Tudum: Squid Game Locations Guide
• Squid Game's production design, explained (Variety)
• Netflix filming locations dominate Seoul tourist attractions (Korea Herald)
• Squid Game: The Experience (Netflix Tudum)
• EpicKor N Seoul Tower guide
• EpicKor Netflix K-drama watch-first guide
• EpicKor Korean reality dating shows guide