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When we first meet Squid Game protagonist Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) in Season 1, he doesn’t come up with the money for to purchase his daughter fried rooster for her birthday. This lack of means, made extra excessive by his crippling debt, informs Gi-hun’s resolution to participate within the Squid Game—even after he discovers its lethal stakes. When Gi-hun emerges because the gauntlet’s solely survivor, he takes residence 45.6 billion gained.
Watching Korean lethal competitors drama Squid Game as an American can flip into an train in pausing high-stakes motion with a view to Google the gained to USD change price. (At the time of this writing, it’s $1 is to roughly 1,447 gained.) The collection communicates that 45.6 billion gained is a life-changing sum of money for the Korean contestants. But what precisely does that imply in tangible phrases?
Ahead of Squid Game Season 2, out on Dec. 26, let’s break down what the prize is absolutely price, in a 2024 context.
How a lot is 45.6 billion gained in USD?
In December 2024, on the time of writing this text, the 45.6 billion gained prize pot equated to roughly $31.5 million. Notably, the Korean gained is at a 15-year low in relation to the U.S. greenback.
The prize pot is similar for the sport in Season 2 because it was for the sport in Season 1, although it has been three years in each our world and the world of the present, and the Korean value of dwelling has elevated. In 2021, the 45.6 billion gained prize cash would have been nearer to $38.5 million when transformed to USD. Apparently, the individuals who run the sport care neither in regards to the vagaries of worldwide currencies, nor inflation.
What will 45.6 billion gained get you in Korea?
How a lot would 45.6 billion gained imply to a “regular” individual in Korea? Well, the typical month-to-month wage in Korea is 3.9 million gained, or round $2,696. This quantities to 46.8 million gained per yr (round $32,347) earlier than earnings tax. With his winnings, Gi-hun might pay the annual common salaries for roughly 974 Korean employees.
Half of the nation’s inhabitants lives within the Seoul metropolitan space, which was ranked because the ninth costliest metropolis for expats in a 2024 survey. When it involves the Seoul rental market, it prices round $475 per 30 days for a studio residence exterior of the town heart or round $2,500 per 30 days for a three-bedroom residence within the metropolis heart.
From a U.S. perspective, that month-to-month lease may appear very low cost, nevertheless it’s necessary to issue within the distinctive rental cost construction, often called jeonse, generally utilized in Korea. The system includes the tenant placing down a big sum of “key cash” when leasing an residence that will probably be returned on the finish of the often two-year lease interval. The “key cash” is often anyplace between 50% to 70% of the property’s worth, making it troublesome or unattainable for a lot of Koreans to interrupt into the rental market. In November 2023, the imply jeonse value was 423 million gained, or roughly $292,000. After successful the sport, Gi-hun would haven’t any bother renting; he might afford to pay the imply jeonse value for roughly 108 flats.
Of course, with the sport’s 45.6 billion gained prize, Gi-hun might afford to purchase one thing in Seoul’s property market—which is nearly fully inaccessible to the typical Korean. A state-issued research launched in 2023 decided {that a} Seoul resident must not spend a single dime of their earnings for 15.2 years to purchase a house within the metropolis. The common residence in Seoul’s richest neighborhood, Gangnam (made well-known in Psy’s 2012 satirical banger “Gangnam Style”), sells for two.25 billion gained, roughly $1.56 million.
As for fried rooster? Gi-hun might now afford to purchase his daughter greater than 1.8 million of the 25,000-won tongdak signatures at this August Chicken department close to Seoul’s Yaksu station. Unfortunately, she moved to Los Angeles along with her mom and stepfather in Season 1.
How a lot is 500 million gained?
In Episode 1 of Season 2, “The Search,” Gi-hun casually provides his community of gangsters a 500 million gained bonus for locating Gong Yoo’s The Recruiter someplace within the Seoul subway system. The males are extremely motivated by that sum of money, which equates to about $346,000.
How a lot is 45.6 billion gained in comparison with the wealth of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk?
Here are a number of last metrics, which really feel related within the context of Squid Game’s depiction of the absurdity of wealth accumulation below capitalism: Jeff Bezos makes $1.9 million per hour, which equates to about 2.75 billion gained, or roughly $45.8 million in a 24-hour interval—so, he makes extra in considered one of his days than Gi-hun made successful the entire sport.
In 2024, Elon Musk handed Bezos to develop into the wealthiest individual on the planet; his internet price lately reached over $400 billion, spurred by Donald Trump’s re-election. Gi-hun must win the sport over 12,700 instances to build up that a lot cash.
