After a fairly disastrous start to 2022, which saw the company lose subscribers for two straight quarters, Netflix has seemingly turned things around heading into the end of the year. The world’s largest streaming service now stands at 223 million global subscribers, and recently launched its ad-supported price tier, which it hopes will bring even more customers.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke about the company’s progress recently at the 2022 UBS Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference. While there, he provided some updates about Netflix’s investment in mobile games, which took several big steps forward in 2022.

Sarandos called engagement numbers with Netflix’s mobile games “Early, but promising.” The company has made a huge investment in its mobile games this year, opening several in-house gaming studios across the globe. As of October, the service had 55 mobile games already available to users or in development, and it most recently made nine new games available to all subscribers at no additional cost.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to reach a lot of people and made in an incredible way that mobile gaming — or in the early days and as it evolves, how to reach these big audiences and have big cultural impact. It’s been pretty hit and miss, I think, for the game industry. And I think for us, like you’ll see coming up for us, we have new games coming out in the ‘Stranger Things’ world, across a bunch of our IP, even [a game based on] our ‘Nailed It’ baking competition,” Sarandos said about Netflix’s ongoing commitment to mobile gaming.

It is good news for the service that engagement with its new games has been “promising” thus far. Netflix needs those numbers to turn a bit better than promising if it wants its investments in gaming to pay off. A report from earlier this year, before Netflix leaned as hard into mobile games as it is currently leaning, showed that less than 1% of Netflix subscribers around the globe played its games.

Sarandos was also asked if the company had thought about merging with or acquiring a major games studio to expedite the process of producing such games. Sarandos noted the company had done minor acquisitions in the past, but he thought that process would remain in-house, with a focus on delivering more games from Netflix’s most popular franchises.

“We mostly think about it as in the IP, things that are attractive in the IP space. I think historically, we’re builders versus buyers. So I think we’ll probably lean on that for a while,” Sarandos said.

Sign Up

netflix.com

Netflix

Netflix is a leading subscription-based video streaming service that offers on-demand access to an extensive library of over 3,000 movies, 2,000+ TV shows, and a growing collection of acclaimed Netflix originals. Renowned for producing groundbreaking content, Netflix has become a cultural powerhouse with hit originals like “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday,” “Squid Game,” “The Crown,” “Tiger King,” “Bridgerton,” “The Witcher,” and “Black Mirror.”

…

The platform constantly updates its catalog, introducing fresh content alongside timeless classics and international hits. Netflix’s commitment to storytelling has also earned critical acclaim, with award-winning exclusives such as “Roma,” “Marriage Story,” “The Power of the Dog,” “Mank,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” In 2023, their animated film “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, further solidifying Netflix’s reputation for high-quality content.

Recently, Netflix has expanded beyond standard movies and TV titles with the addition of video podcasts, and is also exploring a digital store that would offer third-party streamers within the app.

Netflix offers three plans – stream on 2 devices in HD with the “Standard with Ads” ($8.99) plan, on 2 devices in HD with the “Standard” ($19.99) plan, and 4 devices in up to 4K on the “Premium” ($26.99) plan.

Sign Up

$8.99+ / month

netflix.com