Squid Game (2021–2025), Netflix's most-watched series, follows Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and 455 other debt-ridden players through children's games with deadly stakes. The show was created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, who spent ten years developing it, and the first season premiered on September 17, 2021.
The games themselves were filmed on purpose-built sets — but the "real world" around Gi-hun is real Seoul and Incheon. Here are five places you can actually visit: the ddakji station, Gi-hun's neighborhood, the bread-or-lottery park, the amusement park where Deok-su meets his gang, and the tower from the finale.
One honest note before you go: Ssangmun-dong is a real residential neighborhood where people live — visit quietly and respectfully. And the game arenas are sets, not places: see the last section before planning a trip around them.
Information checked: November 4, 2026.
Where does Gi-hun play ddakji with the Salesman?
Yangjae Citizen's Forest Station, 116 Maeheon-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul — the Gangnam-bound platform of the Shinbundang Line. In Season 1, Episode 1, a desperate Gi-hun sits on a platform bench when a sharply dressed stranger — the Salesman, played by Gong Yoo — offers him a game of ddakji (paper-tile flipping): 100,000 won per win, a slap per loss. It is the scene that starts everything.
The station is an ordinary working subway station, so go off-peak if you want the platform bench to yourself. The exact platform and benches are still there, and Yangjae Citizens' Forest Park is right outside the station.
Where is Gi-hun's neighborhood in real life?
Ssangmun-dong, Dobong-gu, in northern Seoul — take Line 4 to Ssangmun Station. This is where Gi-hun lives, and it is also where director Hwang Dong-hyuk grew up; he has said he used his own childhood neighborhood as the model for Gi-hun's life.
Two spots fans look for: Baegun Market (Samyang-ro 154-gil), where Sang-woo's mother runs her fish stall, and the CU convenience store, Ssangmun Uicheon branch (11 Uicheon-ro 39-gil), where Gi-hun and Oh Il-nam (player 001) share soju and instant noodles in the rain in Episode 2. Gi-hun's half-basement home is nearby. Some of the neighborhood interiors were built as sets, but the market and the convenience store are real.
Where is the bread-or-lottery scene from Season 2?
Tapgol Park, 99 Jong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul — a free public park, about 250 metres from Jongno 3-ga Station (Lines 1, 3 and 5), Exit 1. In Season 2, Episode 1, "Bread and Lottery", the Recruiter (Gong Yoo) offers homeless people in the park a choice between a loaf of bread and a lottery scratch card — and when most choose the scratch card, he stomps the remaining bread in front of them.
The park is worth a visit for its own history too: it is Seoul's first modern park and the birthplace of the March 1st Independence Movement of 1919, and it holds the ten-storey Wongaksa stone pagoda, a National Treasure. Be mindful that homeless people gather in the park.
Where does Deok-su meet his gang?
Wolmi Theme Park (My Land), 81 Wolmi Munhwa-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon, on Wolmido Island. In Season 1, Episode 2, gangster Jang Deok-su (Heo Sung-tae) meets his gang at the entrance of this old seaside amusement park. Entry to the park is free; rides are paid.
A small precision: the exact meeting spot was My Land (7 Wolmi-ro 234beon-gil), the amusement park right next to Wolmi Theme Park in the same Wolmido complex — the two are often named interchangeably. From Seoul, take the subway to Dongincheon Station, then bus 2 to Wolmido.
Where does Gi-hun meet Oh Il-nam in the finale?
IFC Mall, 10 Gukjegeumyung-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, in the Yeouido financial district. The mall bookends the season: in Episode 1 Gi-hun is picked up by a black van just outside it, and in the finale he is brought to the tower — the 7th floor of the IFC complex — to meet the man behind the games, Oh Il-nam. The midnight wager over a homeless man lying in the snow happens just outside the mall, beside the Billy Angel Cake Company.
The mall is open to the public, and the street outside is where the pick-up scene was filmed.
Can you visit the games themselves?
No — and this is the honest limit of a Squid Game tour. The game interiors — the Escher-like staircases, the dormitory, the Red Light, Green Light arena and the giant Young-hee doll — were built as sets at Studio Cube in Daejeon, and the sets were not kept for visitors. The island exteriors were filmed on Seongapdo, a sparsely populated island off Incheon that is not publicly accessible.
The giant Young-hee doll that was displayed at Olympic Park in Seoul was a promotional exhibition, not a filming location. What you can visit are the five real places above — the Seoul and Incheon streets where the story's real world was filmed.
Official Sources
https://english.visitseoul.net/hallyu/%E2%80%98Squid-Game%E2%80%99-Locations-in-Seoul/39411
https://www.campus.sg/ssangmun-dong-the-hood-that-defined-squid-game-and-reply-1988-campus-sg/
https://www.theseoulguide.com/tapgol-park/
https://www.incheon.go.kr/world/wd020306/2215813
https://filmoblivion.com/tag/seoul/
https://www.Slashfilm.Com/1734765/squid-game-filming-locations-explained/
https://geektrippers.com/squid-game-filming-locations/
Hours, prices, seasons, and admission conditions can change — re-check the official pages before you visit.