The Culling Game in Jujutsu Kaisen is happening because it’s a massive, deadly ritual designed to reshape humanity using cursed energy, orchestrated by Kenjaku to force human “evolution” by merging people with Tengen and cursed energy on a national scale.

Quick Scoop: What Is the Culling Game?

The Culling Game is a huge, rule‑driven battle royale where sorcerers and ordinary people who’ve been given or awakened cursed techniques are forced into sealed colonies and made to fight to the death. Each colony is a barrier zone, and once you’re in, the rules push you toward killing other players to survive and keep your technique.

In‑universe, it looks like a twisted “game.” Underneath, it’s an enormous sacrificial ritual.

Key surface features:

  • Large‑scale competition with strict written rules and points.
  • Players must join within 19 days of awakening/receiving a technique or lose it (which usually means death).
  • Killing other players earns points, and staying inactive for too long also leads to losing your technique.
  • Non‑sorcerers who step into a colony become players instantly.

The True Purpose: A Giant Ritual

On the deeper, plot‑level, the Culling Game is actually a ritual built around barriers and mass killing.

  • The game is designed to generate massive amounts of cursed energy from the deaths of players inside each colony.
  • That energy and the barrier network are used to prepare for a forced merger of Master Tengen with the people of Japan.
  • The intended result is to create an enormous, unstable amalgam of human consciousness and cursed energy that “evolves” beyond normal sorcerers and spirits.

So when you ask “why is the Culling Game happening,” the in‑story answer is:
It’s the mechanism Kenjaku uses to trigger a nationwide evolution ritual , not just a random tournament.

Kenjaku’s Goal and Motives

Kenjaku, the mastermind behind the game, is obsessed with pushing humanity to a new state through cursed energy.

  • He sets up binding vows so that the Game will keep running even if he’s killed, locking the ritual in place.
  • His objective is to force humanity into a state where the boundary between humans and curses is blurred or broken entirely.
  • The chaos, deaths, and shifting rules are all part of creating the conditions for that merger ritual to ignite.

From a thematic angle, his motive frames the Culling Game as:

  • A test ground to see how far sorcerers and humans can be pushed.
  • A way to rewrite the power structure of the jujutsu world permanently.

Why It Has to Be a “Game” With Rules

It’s not just mindless slaughter; the rules matter a lot to why the ritual works.

  • Written rules and colonies form a stable barrier system that Tengen’s power can interact with on a huge scale.
  • The scoring and time limits ensure a continuous flow of combat and deaths, preventing the energy build‑up from stalling.
  • Binding vows tied to the rules mean the system is self‑sustaining; no one can casually shut it down.

Example: Strong players quickly wiping out weaker ones creates early surges of cursed energy, but the way colonies deadlock later hints that the real aim isn’t just farming power in a straightforward way. This is what characters like Reggie Star point out in the story.

Outside‑Story View: Why This Arc Exists

From a meta/storytelling perspective, many fans see the Culling Game as Gege Akutami’s way to:

  • Expand worldbuilding with new sorcerers, techniques, and settings.
  • Raise the stakes after Shibuya by turning all of Japan into a live battlefield.
  • Force the main cast into separate, simultaneous conflicts so we see multiple viewpoints and strategies at once.

Some forum discussions argue that parts of the rules never fully pay off, and that the complexity sometimes feels like it’s there more for worldbuilding flair than tight plot necessity. Others enjoy it specifically because it makes the world feel bigger and more chaotic, like an apocalyptic tournament arc.

Mini FAQ: “Why Is the Culling Game Happening?” in One Line

  • In‑universe: To power a massive ritual that merges Tengen with the people of Japan and forcibly “evolves” humanity via cursed energy.
  • Story‑wise: To escalate the stakes, introduce lots of new fighters and rules, and change the status quo of the Jujutsu Kaisen world forever.

TL;DR: The Culling Game is happening because Kenjaku turned Japan into a giant sacrificial ritual—disguised as a battle royale—to harvest cursed energy and force humanity into a new, twisted evolutionary stage.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.