Netflix’s gaming audience: less than 1% engage daily -report

Netflix has made significant strides in the world of gaming, with promising results among its 247.15 million subscribers. As reported by CNBC, market analysis firm Apptopia has shared data that suggests Netflix Gaming has seen growth, although it is still in the early stages of establishing a substantial gaming user base. 

Specifically, less than 1% of Netflix’s vast subscriber pool plays games daily. As of September, it was estimated that approximately 2.2 million Netflix users engaged with one or more game titles each day. Impressively, the games offered by Netflix have been downloaded a total of 70.5 million times on a global scale. Just two years after its introduction, the streaming giant has expanded its gaming library from 24 to 77 titles, reflecting its ongoing commitment to enhancing its gaming offering.

Netflix isn’t doing as well in mobile games compared to other big game makers. Apptopia data shows that Playrix, the company behind Gardenscapes, had 531 million downloads. King, who made Candy Crush, had 438 million, and Supercell, known for Clash of Clans, had 388 million downloads.

This early-stage trajectory of Netflix Gaming is not unusual and is commonly observed when tech giants introduce new features. Building a substantial user base for gaming features often takes time, and Netflix is no exception. Despite the initial percentage of daily gamers among its enormous subscriber base, the company sees a significant long-term potential in enriching the entertainment it provides to subscribers.

“This trajectory is not dissimilar from what we’ve seen before,” Co-CEO Greg Peters shared on the company’s prerecorded earnings call. “When we’ve launched a new region — or when we launched new genres, like unscripted” we had to “crawl, walk, run, but we see a tremendous amount of opportunity to build a long-term center value of entertainment.” 

Because Netflix’s mobile games aren’t getting much attention, they have begun to try something new. In August, Netflix’s VP of Games, Mike Verdu, said they’re testing games that can be played on different devices. They’re trying this out with a small group of people in Canada and the UK. They’re starting with games like “Oxenfree” from Night School Studio, a Netflix game maker, and “Molehew’s Mining Adventure,” a gem-mining game. When you play these games on your TV, you’ll use your phone as a controller. If you’re on Android, you’ll use the Netflix app, and if you’re on iOS, there’s a separate app for the controller.

Nevertheless, the results might serve as an indicator for Netflix to consider further action, as a report from August 2022 similarly indicated that daily engagement was below 1%.