A total of 456 players begin the contest in Squid Game.
The contestants are people facing severe financial hardship who accept an invitation to compete in a series of traditional children’s games. Losing carries deadly consequences, while the surviving winner can claim a huge cash prize.
The number is also built into the story’s central symbolism. Seong Gi-hun is assigned Player 456, making him both the final numbered contestant and the main character. The prize is 45.6 billion won, echoing the same digits.
The figure refers to the starting field, not the number who survive a particular round. Players are eliminated throughout the competition, so later episodes show progressively smaller groups. Numbers such as 067 and 218 identify individual contestants rather than the original total.