Netflix will roughly double the number of mobile games that can be downloaded via the streaming service by 2022. There are currently 26 games available for free to Netflix subscribers, and there should be 50.
The streaming giant would therefore invest extra in exclusive mobile games, but according to CNBC, the addition to the subscription does not seem to be very successful so far. Statistics from market researcher Apptopia would suggest that some 1.7 million subscribers play Netflix games daily, roughly 0.8 percent of the company’s total subscribers. In total, Netflix’s games are said to have been downloaded more than 23 million times.
This is not unexpected for Netflix, by the way; at the presentation of the quarterly figures for the fourth quarter of last year, the company stated that it was aiming for the long term. The intent is to ‘create products that are connected to the universes, characters and stories we to create’. The company does this with games based on popular series, among other things. For example, games around La Casa de Papel and The Queen’s Gambit have already been announced.
Netflix has been offering mobile games as part of a paid subscription to the streaming service since the end of 2021. Users get access to Netflix’s catalog of games, which consists of both licensed games and games created specifically for the service. The company invests heavily in this category of entertainment. At the beginning of this year, for example, 65 million dollars was paid for a Finnish game studio. Netflix’s reasoning is that not other streaming services, but other forms of entertainment are major competitors.
