Since Netflix launched a mobile gaming product for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets in late 2021, it has been nowhere near as successful as the company would have liked.
It’s a surprise, especially as mobile gaming is a growing market and holds the biggest portion of the gaming market itself.
It’s the accessibility that defines it, and the scalable (and casual) difficulty of the games.
The iGaming operators know this better than most. They’ve grown their catalogs and services to fulfill the promise of mobile gaming.
As such, live dealer casino games, the three roulette wheels games, and a wide variety of online slots can all be played, equally optimised, on both desktop sites and dedicated apps.
With such a fertile market, the fact Netflix Games have failed to hit the mark with any of its titles seems likely to be a symptom of poor marketing as much as poor gaming catalogue.
Less than 1.00% of Netflix subscribers have actually experienced Netflix Games.
The question being asked here is, are Netflix’s gaming offers helping the business, or has it just been one big disaster causing the company to lose significant sums of money? Find out more right here.
What Is Netflix Games?
Netflix Games is a mobile gaming product launched in November 2021 by movie and television streaming giant Netflix. Anyone with a Netflix subscription can access Netflix Games, and there are over 50 different titles to choose from.
Even more new titles are expected to arrive over the coming weeks and months. Their unique selling point is that Netflix Games comes with no add-ons (in other words, no in-app purchases are available), no additional fees, and no in-game adverts.
The Netflix Games app can be downloaded and installed for free onto any Android smartphone or tablet that runs on Android 8.0 or later or any Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch (iOS/iPadOS 15 or later).
Netflix Games isn’t yet available to kids, which is why one of the reasons why the company could be missing out. In other words, only adult subscribers can access Netflix Games.
More About Netflix Games
You can gain entry to Netflix Games using your Netflix account and your Netflix profile.
Any games that you decide to launch will automatically be saved to the Netflix profile you use to access the games, either locally on your preferred smartphone or tablet device or via cloud services.
Don’t forget that each game also comes with a maturity rating, which is designed to help players make more informed choices about the games they and their families can enjoy playing.
Just like the movies and television shows you can stream at Netflix devices on the same account from multiple devices, games can also be played across multiple handheld devices on the same account.
What Games Does Netflix Games Offer?
The main game categories on Netflix Games and some examples of their most popular titles are the following:
- action: Dust & Neon, Into the Dead 2: Unleashed, and Tomb Raider: Reloaded
- adventure: Kentucky Route Zero, Highwater, Raji: An Ancient Epic, OXENFREE, Stranger Things: 1984, Stranger Things 3: The Game, This is a True Story, and Valiant Hearts: Coming Home
- arcade: Bowling Ballers, Teeter (up) Remastered
- card: Arcanium: Rise of Akhan, Exploding Kittens
- music: Hello Kitty and Friends: Happiness Parade
- party: Heads Up!, and Nailed It! Baking Bash
- Puzzle: Knittens, Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales, and Wild Things: Animal Adventures
- Racing: Asphalt Xtreme
- Role Playing: Dungeon Dwarves, and Moonlighter
- simulation: Cats & Soup, Immortality, Too Hot to Handle: Love is a Game, Townsmen: A Kingdom Rebuilt
- sports: Wonderputt Forever
- strategy: Desta: The Memories Between, Into the Breach, Narcos: Cartel Wars Unlimited, Terra Nil
- tabletop: Dominoes Cafe, Mahjong Solitaire, Solitaire
Are Netflix Gaming Offers Helping The Business?
As mentioned, only around 1.00% of Netflix users have actually tried Netflix Games, and a huge amount of money has been spent on the project, so you could say that Netflix Games has been one big disaster for the business.
However, things could change over the coming months, and more people could begin to play, but only time will tell.
It will be hard to entice people away from the usual games they play on their mobile or tablet devices, especially to play games that seem far inferior to today’s biggest hit titles, such as Rainbow Six Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Valorant Mobile, Mortal Kombat: Onslaught, and Assassin’s Creed: Codename Jade, to name a few.
