Netflix is ramping up its push into video games with plans to double its list of offerings by the end of the year, but for now, some of the streaming giant’s subscribers are playing.
Since last November, the company has been rolling out games to keep users engaged between show releases. The games are only available to customers, but they have to be downloaded as a separate app.
According to app analytics company, Apptopia, the game has been downloaded a total of 23.3 million times and averages 1.7 million daily users. That’s less than 1% of Netflix’s 221 million subscribers.
The importance of games to Netflix’s overall strategy has arguably increased in recent months as the company faces intense competition for user attention. In the second quarter, Netflix lost nearly a million subscribers after losing 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter — its first subscriber drop in more than a decade.
“One of the many benefits Netflix has in pursuing the strategy is its ability to increase engagement beyond when a show first hits the stage,” said Tom Forte, senior analyst at Davidson.
Netflix chief operating officer Greg Peters said last year the company was “several months and really, frankly, years” in learning how games can keep customers on the service.
“We’re going to be experimental and try to do a bunch of things,” Peters said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call. “But I would say that we have eyes on the long-term rewards that are really centered around our ability to make the assets connected to the universes, the characters, the stories that we’re building.”
The company’s current list of 24 game apps includes various genres and Netflix shows, such as “Stranger Things: 1984.” Many are based on popular card games such as “Mahjong Solitaire” and “Exploding Kittens”.
The catalog will grow to 50 games by the end of the year, including “Queen’s Gambit Chase” based on the hit Netflix series, according to a company representative.