Netflix games push ignored by 99 per cent of subscribers

The Netflix expansion into gaming isn’t enticing many users to hit the play button over the watch button, according to new research.

According to data compiled by Apptopia (via CNBC), 99 per cent of all Netflix subscribers are yet to download one of the mobile games now offered for free to Netflix subscribers. The research firm said the games have been downloaded just 23.3 million times and average a paltry 1.7 million daily users.

That’s despite a host of games associated with the streaming giant’s key franchises like Stranger Things and Exploding Kittens, the card game the company is currently adapting. It is also working on a chess game based on The Queen’s Gambit, one of the company’s more popular shows of recent times. There are currently 24 games available via the service, but that’ll grow to 50 by the end of the year.

However, one of the downsides of accessing games through Netflix is that playing them rely on the old way of doing things – downloaded rather than being played over the cloud.

It’s still early days for Netflix though and still too early to make a judgement over whether this will be a success or a failure. Netflix is still very much experimenting with formats and subject matters, as it attempts to keep subscribers engaged and out of the clutches of TikTok and the mobile gaming giants.

“We’re still intentionally keeping things a little bit quiet because we’re still learning and experimenting and trying to figure out what things are going to actually resonate with our members, what games people want to play,” Leanne Loombe, who runs the games department at Netflix said last year.

The company also said it is “open to licensing, accessing large game IP that people will recognise,” earlier in 2022. So, it’s not clear whether the policy will be a success in the long term, but Netflix certainly hasn’t flown out of the traps.