Less than 1% of Netflix subscribers are playing the service’s games

By Cristina Alexander August 8, 2022

Netflix has launched a slew of mobile games since it announced its push into gaming last year, but most subscribers aren’t playing them yet.

According to data from app analytics company Apptopia (via CNBC), Netflix’s games have been downloaded 23.3 million times and are played by 1.7 million subscribers daily. That’s less than 1 percent of the 221 million people subscribed to Netflix worldwide.

Recommended Videos

This report comes as Netflix faces growing competition from other streaming platforms to retain subscribers. Netflix lost over a million subscribers in the second quarter after reporting a loss of 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter in April — its first decline in over a decade.

When Netflix Games launched in November 2021, it had a small offering of five games, including Stranger Things: 1984, Stranger Things 3: The Game, Shooting Hoops, Card Blast, and Teeter Up. The games catalog has since increased to over two dozen titles, including Poinpy, This is a True Story, Exploding Kittens: The Game, the League of Legends spinoff Hextech Mayhem, Into the Breach, and Before Your Eyes.

Netflix is currently working to add more games to its catalog, including The Queen’s Gambit chess game, a Shadow and Bone RPG, a “choose your own adventure” called Too Hot to Handle, and a heist game based on La Casa de Papel (or Money Heist). It aims to have 50 games on the platform by the end of the year. To hit that goal, it has acquired three indie game studios, including Boss Fight, Next Games (which already created games based on Stranger Things and The Walking Dead), and Night School Studio, the creator of Oxenfree.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…

Gaming

We played tons of games at GDC 2024. Put these ones on your wish list

Every year at GDC, we play dozens of games that are unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It’s usually where we find titles that go on to become some of our favorites of the year, like last year’s show-stealing Viewfinder. And while we love finding those surefire hits, our favorite part of the show is discovering the totally unique projects that we can’t stop thinking about.

There was no shortage of those games at and around this year’s show. Over the course of a week, we’d play a host of creative games with totally innovative ideas. There was everything from a Tomagotchi tribute to a creepy horror game about a streamer on the occult dark web. If you’re the kind of person who worries that the gaming industry is out of ideas, this year’s show should alleviate those fears. To celebrate that, we’ve rounded up our favorite games from this year’s show. You’ll find that no two games here look remotely alike – and that’s what makes them so special.
Dungeons of Hinterberg

Gaming

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is out to eliminate mobile gaming’s stigma

Activision may be under new ownership at Xbox, but that’s not slowing down its flagship series. After a few years in development, Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is finally launching worldwide under the Microsoft banner. It’s a major moment for the shooter series that’s endured multiple industry changes over its long lineage. The new mobile game is the latest evolution for Call of Duty, bringing a high-quality battle royale experience to phones.

The importance of that evolution isn’t lost on Chris Plummer, the co-head of mobile at Activision. In an interview with Digital Trends ahead of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile’s launch, Plummer painted a picture of how much has changed in the game industry since Call of Duty Mobile launched in 2019. An industry-shifting war between Epic Games and Apple, an enormous acquisition that’s turned Xbox into a mobile king, and a gradual shift in the general attitude towards mobile games -- all of that has led to this moment. Plummer believes that the old days of players bemoaning cash-grab mobile games are coming to an end. The industry just needed its killer app; he believes Warzone Mobile could be that game.

Gaming

After watching Dune: Part Two, go play this Xbox Game Pass title

Dune: Part Two has taken theaters by storm after a relatively quiet start to the 2024 box office. It’s getting even more people into this franchise, which is the grandfather of a lot of modern sci-fi stories. Dune also has a more storied history with video games than you may think. If you’re in the mood to return to Arrakis and experience more entertainment set within the Dune universe, you don’t have to wait for Dune: Awakening.

There’s a Dune strategy game available right now on Xbox Game Pass across PC, consoles, and cloud called Dune: Spice Wars. If you’ve ever sunk time into strategy games or are most intrigued by the political machinations that happen in the background of Dune’s narrative, then I recommend you try out Dune: Spice Wars after watching Dune: Part Two.
Spice is life
Developed by Shiro Games and published by Funcom, Dune: Spice Wars is a 4X strategy game. For the uninitiated, 4X is an abbreviation of “explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate,” and those kinds of strategy games allow players to do those four things on a massive scale. The most mainstream 4X strategy game series is Sid Meier’s Civilization, and Dune: Spice Wars shares a lot of elements with that game. Of course, it’s set on Arrakis instead of Earth.