Netflix says it will be primarily focused on games for mobile devices

Netflix said in its Q2 2021 earning report that it will be “primarily focused” on games for mobile devices, building on its interactivity projects like Black Mirror Bandersnatch and its Stranger Things games. 

“We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV.” the company said. 

According to sources familiar with the matter, Netflix will create its gaming team in the upcoming months and is planning to start offering video games on its platform within 2022.

Games will be included in members’ Netflix subscriptions at no additional cost similar to films and series.

“We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games.”

Finishing the quarter with more than 209 million paid memberships, Netflix said it added 1.5 million paid memberships in the second quarter of 2021, with the APAC region representing about two-thirds of its global paid net adds in the quarter. On the other hand, according to a report from InMobi, 69% of connected TV device owners in the United States used the Netflix app to view video content including TV shows and movies in 2020. 

Netflix reported a revenue of $7.3 billion, up 19% year-over-year. Revenue growth in the second quarter of 2021 was driven by an 11% increase in average paid streaming memberships and 8% growth in average revenue per membership. 

Netflix said it expects new customer additions to reach 3.5 million in the third quarter of 2021,up from 2.2 million in the same quarter of the previous year. If it does so, the company says that its total number of new subscribers over the past two years would hit 54 million.

According to Nielsen, streaming represents just 27% of US TV screen time, compared with 63% for linear television. Based on this same study, Nielsen estimates that Netflix is just 7% of US TV screen time.

According to a recent study, the top 30 streaming apps in the United States generated 81 million downloads in the first quarter of 2021 with a 13% year-over-year growth. The study found that, while iOS users spent $431 million in streaming apps in the first quarter, Android users accounted for $174 million which is up 5% from 1Q 2021.