'Squid Game: The Challenge' is the most popular new show on Netflix. It might also be the most controversial.

If there wasn't enough anxiety watching 2021's Squid Game on Netflix, the streaming platform has outdone itself by bringing the fictional sensation to life as a reality TV competition show.

Squid Game: The Challenge features 456 contestants competing to win $4.56 million, Netflix’s largest cash prize in reality television history. While the competition doesn't mirror the sci-fi show's life-or-death stakes, competitors were dead serious about how they approached the game.

Through games, players "are pushed to their limits and forced to ask themselves just how far they'll go to win, with opportunistic alliances, cutthroat strategies and ugly betrayals to follow," the streaming service said about the series.

Netflix released Squid Game: The Challenge's first five episodes on Nov. 22, with the subsequent four episodes released on Nov. 29. The final episode, which is out Dec. 6, will reveal who won the jackpot.

While the show has topped the charts at Netflix, it has also come under scrutiny after contestants voiced complaints about the conditions in the dorm and game sets, as well as accusations that the game was rigged for certain players.

Here's what you need to know about the controversial series.

Just like the original, the Challenge is a hit

Squid Game: The Challenge is a worldwide sensation. The show ranked No. 1 on Netflix's global list of the most-watched television shows in English for the week of Nov. 20-26, with over 20,100,000 views and 85,700,000 hours streamed in its first week on the platform.

This shouldn't come as a surprise as its original source material was also a massive success in 2021, according to Variety, with a whopping 1.65 billion hours streamed in a 28-day viewing period.

But what's surprising is that Squid Game: The Challenge has been so popular, it brought the scripted Squid Game series back into Netflix's Global Top 10 for a non-English TV show for the first time since June 2022. For the week of Nov. 20-26, the scripted show ranked No. 6 on the list, with 1.6M views.

Under fire

Some wondered how it would work to create a reality competition show based on a series about death, poverty and heart-wrenching games. Both Rolling Stone and Variety reported on difficult conditions during filming process.

"It was just the cruelest, meanest thing I've ever been through," one former contestant told Rolling Stone. "We were a human horse race, and they were treating us like horses out in the cold racing and [the race] was fixed."

According to Rolling Stone, contestants who spoke to the outlet anonymously said they "were forced to play the show's 'Red Light, Green Light' game in inhumane conditions, spending up to nine hours inside a freezing airport hangar, unable to move for 30-minute stretches, with medics rushing in to tend to people who were unable to take the extreme cold."

Variety similarly reported that a "number of contestants collapsed on set — likely due to a combination of cold and fatigue from the eight hours of prep time before the game even started."

Though Netflix confirmed that three of 456 players required medical attention, the streamer denied allegations of wrongdoing.

"We care deeply about the health of our cast and crew, and the quality of this show. Any suggestion that the competition is rigged or claims of serious harm to players are simply untrue. We've taken all the appropriate safety precautions, including after-care for contestants — and an independent adjudicator is overseeing each game to ensure it's fair to everyone," a spokesperson for Squid Game: The Challenge said in a statement to multiple outlets.

Six contestants who spoke to the Wrap anonymously about their time on set described participating in the competition as "heartbreaking," "excruciating" and "absolutely s***ty."

According to the Wrap, the contestants shared that none of them made it past the "Red Light, Green Light" game and that almost all of them "alleged that their eliminations were unfair. Some of them even claimed the initial challenge was rigged, as some say they were eliminated after crossing the finish line before time ran out."

Netflix and its co-producing studios the Garden and Studio Lambert also denied claims of a fixed game, telling Rolling Stone that "any suggestion that the competition is rigged or claims of serious harm to players are simply untrue."

A player's perspective

Jessica "Figgy" Figueroa was prominently featured on Squid Game: The Challenge. The 30-year-old sixth grade science teacher and former Survivor contestant made her return to reality TV participating in the competition, where she was known as Player 033.

"Four hundred fifty-six contestants is the biggest reality show competition known in the entire world, and to have been able to have even my face shown, I was super excited for people to be able to hear my story," Figgy told Yahoo Entertainment. "I love competition, so I knew what I was signing up for. On the contracts, it's always like, 'If you hurt yourself, it is what it is,' and that's how Survivor was and I wouldn't expect anything less from this; that’s my type of show."

While Figgy was eliminated in the third episode of Squid Game: The Challenge, she credits her time on Survivor for helping prep her mentally for the game. Still, she "did feel like everything was fair" on the competition series.

“With the way that they've designed Squid Game: The Challenge, there are a lot of twists in this series, instead of how the original series was [written]," she explained. "There's a lot of chance involved and a lot of luck, but also it falls back on each player."

What's next

Since the show was shot in London, a British personal injuries law firm has been hired to represent two unnamed players who say they suffered hypothermia and nerve damage while shooting. Though no official lawsuit has been filed, the participants have asked the "law firm to help them seek compensation for injuries they suffered during the show's filming in January of this year."

Express Solicitors, the law firm, said in a statement that it has sent letters to Studio Lambert, the co-producer of Squid Game: The Challenge.

"From what we've been told, they pushed the boundaries of safety in the name of entertainment. … Production companies need to ensure that health and safety standards on their shows don't leave people at risk of harm," Daniel Slade, CEO of Express Solicitors, said in a Nov. 23 statement on its website.

A spokesperson for Squid Game: The Challengetold Deadline: "No lawsuit has been filed by any of the Squid Game contestants. We take the welfare of our contestants extremely seriously."

Nikki Jain, head of public relations and marketing at the Sprout PR, who does not work with the Squid Game participants or the production company, said the "allegations of mistreatment" raises questions about the thin line between entertainment and exploitation in reality TV.

"Although Netflix focused on implementing strict safety standards and careful selection of participants, the controversy persisted," Jain told Yahoo Entertainment. "In such a sense this entire scenario acts as a bitter reminder that even in reality shows such as drama or competition, there are real players with real stories behind them."