Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk reportedly "forfeited all intellectual property rights and received no residuals" as Netflix raked in nearly $1 billion from the groundbreaking series, the Los Angeles Times writes in an article exploring the broader exploitation of South Korean creators in the streaming age. Reporter Max Kim said he penned the piece to explore "why and how [Netflix have] been able to buy so much high-performing content for so cheap."
When Hwang was asked in October 2021 if he had become as rich as the $38 million winner of the series' fictional, brutal competition, he told the Guardian, “I’m not that rich. But I do have enough. I have enough to put food on the table. And it’s not like Netflix is paying me a bonus. Netflix paid me according to the original contract.”
Netflix turned a huge profit from the debut season, which cost about $2.4 million per episode to produce and increased the streamer's value by an estimated $900 million, per company documents.