Technologies

Fortnite Meets Squid Game: Here’s How to Get Free Twitch Drops, Plus New Skin Prices

Red Light! Green Light! Fortnite! The hit game is diving into the unnerving world of the massively popular Netflix series.

Squid Game, the chillingly creepy show where desperate, debt-ridden adults compete in a deadly tournament of children’s games, is returning to Netflix for its third and final season on Friday. Its brightly colored, dystopian world has heavily influenced pop culture, even including Halloween costumes. And now, the Squid Game universe is coming to the massively popular game Fortnite in a crossover event beginning at the same time that the third season is available to watch.

When does Squid Game come to Fortnite?

Look for a new island, Squid Grounds, in the Fortnite battle royale mode, Reload, on June 27, at 9 a.m. ET.
It seems likely that the Squid Game skins and items will come to Fortnite before the new island map does. Leakers are reporting that the skins and item shop will be reset at 8 p.m. ET on the night of June 26.
Squid Game-themed skins in the shop will include the red-clad guards and green-clad competitors.
«You’ll recognize plenty of returning weaponry for the Squid Grounds update, though the Glider and Boogie Bomb are making their first-ever appearance in Reload,» a representative for Fortnite promises in the caption for the YouTube trailer showing off the game additions.

And on Fortnite.com, the game goes into a bit more detail.

«Find familiar playground locations from the games, complete with staged town sets and a hollowed-out labyrinth cutting underneath the island’s rolling hills,» the site says. «You can even play Red Light, Green Light at your own risk.»

Before Friday’s launch, players can compete in the Squid Games Cup, a Reload Duos Fill tournament taking place on the Slurp Rush map on June 25. Top players can then earn the Games Guard outfit before it shows up in the shop on June 26.

How to win playing Fortnite Squid Game

Once the map is released, there’s more to come.

Squid Grounds Console Cash Cups, which are Battle Royale Duos tournaments, will be available on July 18, July 25 and Aug. 1,
The games are open to players on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch.
Top performers earn cash prizes.

How to get Free Fortnite Squid Game Twitch Drops

During the crossover’s first weekend, players who watch any channel in the Fortnite category on Twitch between June 27 at 9 a.m. ET and June 29 at 11:59 p.m. ET will receive free in-game content, based on how long they watch.

Options include:

The Games Banner Icon, for 30 cumulative minutes of watching
The Cuddly Games Spray, for 1 hour
The Guarded Games Spray, for 1 hour, 30 minutes
The Ddakji Flip Emoticon, for 2 hours. (Ddakji is the traditional Korean paper-flipping game featured in the show.)

How much do Squid Game skins in Fortnite cost?

Squid Game game focuses on people so far in debt they must risk their lives. Some Fortnite players are joking about that similarity, because according to unconfirmed leaks first reported on by SpushFNBR and NotPaloleaks, and cited by Vice, playing could be pricey.

Reportedly, the Squid Game skin main bundle will cost 3,000 V-Bucks, which is the game’s currency. Fortnite.com says that the bundle includes the Games Guard outfit, the Ddakji Defender outfit, the Green Light Guardian, Marble Maven, Dalgona Destroyer, Tug of War Titan, Pentathlon Perfector, Jegi Juggler, Flying Stone Fighter, Gong-gi Great, Games Manager outfit and Glass Bridge Survivor outfit. It looks as if the crossover won’t include one of the more iconic Squid Game characters, the eerie black-clad Front Man, a former police officer who won the tournament and now runs it.
According to popular Fortnite leaker HYPEX, prices even for single skins won’t be cheap, with the guard and manager skins selling for 1,500 V-Bucks each and the male and female player skins for 1,200 V-Bucks each. Maybe you can find a deadly tournament to enter to win enough … oh, wait.

SQUID GAME x FORTNITE PRICES — JUNE 26
• SKINS BUNDLE (3,000) & GEAR BUNDLE (700)
• GUARD & MANAGER — 1,500 Each
• MALE & FEMALE (5 Styles) — 1,200 Each
• BACKBLINGS (Dalgona, Ddakji) — 300 Each
• EMOTE & WRAP — 500 Each
• INFO VIA @NotPaloleaks pic.twitter.com/Buc4rrm1QV

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) June 24, 2025

But some Fortnite fans seem excited about the new additions regardless.

«The fact that we’re getting elimination-based gaming inside elimination-based gaming is peak 2025 meta,» said one X user.

Another user said they’d prefer to see Squid Game take a role in the standard battle royale Fortnite game.

«This seems like a good idea, but why is Squid Game in Reload and not the Battle Royale game mode?» they asked on X. «I don’t know a lot of people who play Reload, me including [sic]. The last time I played Reload was when the game mode first came out.»

Another person suggested this might be because the Battle Royale season theme, superheroes, doesn’t fit with Squid Game.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Nov. 8

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 8.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the long Saturday one, so you might need assistance. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Uber alternative
Answer: CAB

4A clue: Red-headed character in the «Scooby-Doo» franchise
Answer: DAPHNE

7A clue: Not arrive on time
Answer: RUNLATE

8A clue: Label on a green U.S.D.A. sticker
Answer: ORGANIC

9A clue: Prestigious engineering school in Pasadena
Answer: CALTECH

10A clue: Prepares to be knighted
Answer: KNEELS

11A clue: Parts of a city grid: Abbr.
Answer: STS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Fashion brand with an interlocking «C» logo
Answer: CHANEL

2D clue: Silly behaviors
Answer: ANTICS

3D clue: Tree with smooth gray bark
Answer: BEECH

4D clue: Kevin ___, 15-time N.B.A. All-Star
Answer: DURANT

5D clue: They’re measured in degrees
Answer: ANGLES

6D clue: Division of the earth’s crust
Answer: PLATE

7D clue: Ice, in bartending lingo
Answer: ROCKS

Technologies

Spotify Brings Wrapped Energy Year-Round With Friend-Sharing Stats

The music service introduced new ways for music nerds to share their listening habits with friends.

It can be a long wait for Spotify Wrapped, the end-of-year promotion that allows Spotify users to view and share their listening habits. Now, users can keep an eye on those stats daily, plus share their listening habits with friends.

You can view your Spotify usage statistics every 24 hours and share your updates via social media services, such as Instagram Notes or Spotify Messages. The new share icon gives you access to eight different services where you can post your stats.

Every week, you’ll get updates on your top artists and songs from the past month, and Spotify will recommend new playlists. The app also gives you a «special highlight» based on a specific artist or song.

To access your personal musical data, click on your profile in the top left corner of the app and scroll down to «listening stats.»

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

The new features are somewhat similar to Spotify Wrapped, the service’s annual end-of-year review of users’ listening habits, which is designed to be shared. Every year, Spotify adds extra details to Wrapped, such as assigning users a listening personality or a city that supposedly reflects their music tastes. It’s been the most popular way for Spotify users to view and share their music listening in the past. A number of third-party services do the same thing, including Volt.fm.

Read more: Best Music Streaming Services

Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service, offering 100 million tracks and serving more than 713 million users. In addition to its $12-per-month subscription service, Spotify also offers a free, ad-supported option.

Technologies

Wordle Gets Personal: You Can Now Make and Share Your Own Puzzles

If you’re a Wordle obsessive, you can now make your own inside joke puzzles to send to friends.

Wordle’s an immensely popular New York Times word game (we post the answers daily), but it’s not the most personal game in the world. Answers such as GUISE and PERIL are tricky, but generic. Now, Wordle fans who have ever dreamed of making their own puzzles can test their friends and family by creating their own Wordle creations up to seven letters in length.

No surprise, you have to be a New York Times Games or All Access Subscriber to use this feature. If you are, you’ll find the Create a Puzzle option available from the top menu above today’s Wordle. While you must be a subscriber to create your own personalized puzzle, you can share it with anyone — they only need the link, not a subscription, to complete your Wordle.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Enter a word, and the site will tell you if it is available. Real Wordle limits you to five-letter words, but the puzzle-making feature lets you choose words between 4 and 7 letters.

The usual dictionary rules apply, and so curse words, some pet names, and obscure inside jokes are essentially out. If your cat is named TANGO, that’s there, but RINGO is not an option. You can drop a proposal with a single word like MARRY, but MARRYME will get rejected since that’s two separate words.

Word chosen, you can then fill out your name and add an optional hint, and the feature will generate your puzzle with a link you can send around. Unlike standard puzzles, your puzzle doesn’t appear to reset after a day, so whoever you send it to doesn’t need to rush to solve it.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.