Squid Game season 2 has officially been released and fans are already freaking out

The verdict is already in for the new season of Squid Game.

The first season of the well-loved show dropped on Netflix back in 2021, and it's safe to say it completely rocked the globe.

Created by South Korean film director Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game quickly became one of Netflix's most viewed TV shows. To date, it has attracted an audience of 330 million and more than 2.8 billion hours.

And fans of the show have had to wait a pain-staking three years for the second season, which was green lit in June 2022.

The wait for Squid Game's new season is now over though as new episodes were released today (December 26), and people had been expressing their excitement online before even watching it.

"WHY AM I SO SCARED TO WATCH SQUID GAME 2," wrote one person on Twitter.

A second penned: "Squid game s2 got me holding my breathhhhhh omg."

Dozens of others shared their intentions of binge watching the show. Someone said: "Yaaay I can finally binge Squid Game 2."

"I’m ready to binge this it’s been too long," echoed a different person on Facebook page Netflix Bangers.

Lee Jung-jae is back as Player 456 in Squid Game season two (Netflix)

While it's only been on the streaming platform for a short period of time, viewers have been sharing their reviews already.

"Squid Game season 2 is 10x better than the first," gushed someone on Twitter.

"Squid Game 2 is amazing so far," added someone else who has begun watching it.

A third went on: "First episode of Squid Game season 2 is amazing already WOW."

Another social media user said of the first episode: "I thought Squid Game season 2 would be whack but the first episode itself is so good."

A lot of people were crying out for a second season following the success of the first, but its creator hadn't initially planned on doing a follow-up.

As to why Dong-hyuk did do another season, it largely came down to money.

Hwang Dong-hyuk is the brains behind Squid Game (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Speaking to the BBC, the 53-year-old screenwriter said that he didn't make much cash from the success of season one.

"Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much," he explained.

"So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too."

While money was a contributing factor to him penning a second season, Dong-hyuk also admitted that he 'didn’t fully finish the story' in Squid Game season one.

A third season has already been confirmed to be in the works and is expected to be released some time next year.