Just two years ago, Netflix was announced he would enter a new business: gaming. In a mobile gaming market dominated by free, ad-supported business models, Netflix’s plan was to make its games free without ads or in-app purchases. The game can now begin to perform. Netflix game downloads to grow over 180% year-over-year in 2023, market intelligence firm estimates Sensor tower. In total, games have been downloaded 81.2 million times worldwide from the App Store and Google Play in 2023, with the fourth quarter accounting for approximately 53% of these downloads.
That’s up from the 36% of Netflix game downloads in 2022 driven by fourth-quarter installations, the data show. In 2022, Netflix games were downloaded 28.7 million times and in 2021, 5.2 million times, Sensor Tower estimates.
Initially a small effort that saw Netflix build a catalog of a variety of casual games and those tied to hit Netflix shows like “Stranger Things,” the company soon began acquiring game studios, including developer “Oxenfree “. Studio Night School in 2021, followed the next year by cozy games developer Spry Fox, Finland’s Next Games (publisher of a “Stranger Things” title.), and Texas-based Boss Fight Entertainment, which was founded by former employees of Zynga Dallas and Ensemble Studios.
The goal was to quickly develop a portfolio of games that appeal to the diverse tastes and genre preferences of mobile gamers.
With the acquisitions, Netflix also established studios around the world, in addition to its own in-house studiosincluding a location in Helsinki led by a former Zynga GM and one in Southern California led by Chuck Sonnythe former executive producer on Overwatch from Blizzard Entertainment.
As the company now looks to cloud gaming as its next frontier, it continues to gain traction on the mobile front as well. Despite only being released in the middle of last year, Netflix’s latest addition, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, has already become the streamer’s most downloaded game of all time. It also got the most downloads in a single month across its entire gaming portfolio, the mobile app intelligence firm says Appfigures. Additionally, GTA: Vice City is the sixth most downloaded Netflix game of 2023, and GTA III was the eleventh most downloaded game of the year, according to Sensor Tower data.
The GTA games were an instant hit, with all three amassing a combined total of over 6.4 million downloads in less than a week after arriving on Netflix. Combined, the trio of GTA games made up about 17% of Netflix game downloads for 2023, proving a hit with the mobile audience — and possibly a reason to keep a Netflix subscription for the free access. Month-on-month downloads tripled for Netflix’s games portfolio in December after doubling in November, Appfigures noted.
Thanks to the popularity of the GTA titles, “Action” games are Netflix’s top gaming genre, but the Netflix gaming audience isn’t stuck on just one type of game. Its second most popular genre is “Lifestyle” gaming, with “Too Hot to Handle” games accounting for half of the Lifestyle category’s downloads, Sensor Tower data shows.
Puzzle games were the No. 3 genre, led by Netflix’s second most popular game, the September 2023 puzzle game Storyteller, which drove 10% of Netflix game downloads last year, says Sensor Tower. The title was originally released on PC and Nintendo Switch earlier this year for $10. As the lowest cost of Netflix subscription is $6.99 per month, the gaming service could appeal to consumers who are often looking for a variety of titles to rotate through the year.
Due to the timing of GTA: San Andreas’ release, Storyteller was also the most downloaded game for December 2023, surpassing GTA: San Andreas by about 500,000 installs, Appfigures notes.
Many of Netflix’s games tie into its streaming titles — like “Stranger Things,” which had its own subset of games and was featured on Netflix’s version of the popular game party “Heads Up!” Other titles made into games include “The Queen’s Gambit,” “Too Hot to Handle,” “Money Heist,” “Shadow & Bone,” “Love Is Blind” and “Narcos.” But many more are licensed or acquired titles unrelated to Netflix programming.
For example, another top-rated game is ‘SpongeBob: Get Cooking’, a simple time management game based on the popular cartoon. Based on an analysis by Appfigures, GTA, Storyteller and Football Manager titles also add millions of downloads, indicating that a Netflix show tie-in is not necessary for the game to be successful. It also saw Tower Defense title Bloons TD 6 as the top download since last fall. However, the company warned that the recent jump in downloads came after “months of stagnation”, suggesting that Netflix may need regular releases and constant promotion to keep its gaming engine going.
Last year, it worked toward that goal by releasing 40 games, including popular titles like “Monument Valley” and two in-house games, “Oxenfree II: Lost Signals” and “Netflix Stories: Love Is Blind.” It also started testing the game on TVs in the US, UK and Canada and personalized game recommendations in its app.
But the daily downloads of games after the releases of GTA have decreased. GTA: San Andreas saw 1 million downloads on December 16, 2023, but that dropped to less than 100,000 this Monday, for example (see chart).
Image Credits: Appfigures
Now the company is building a AAA (big budget) studio from the ground up to work on a multi-platform game based on a “unique IP,” according to a Post on LinkedIn from a Netflix partner late last year. Game developers will work with industry veterans including Chuck Sonny, Gavin Irby, Joseph Staten, Raphael Grassetti and Jerry Edsall who run the studio, the post noted. Job listings Today they indicate open roles for game designers and a senior mobile engineer, indicating that the title will be a cross-platform game.
The title will join Netflix’s 89 total games across all platforms – a number that will surely increase in 2024, as Netflix has announced in December that it has nearly 90 more games in development.
