Netflix made plenty of noise earlier this year as new(ish) boss Alain Tascan promised a new batch of party and kids games, plus new titles based on Netflix IP to be released this year.
Ex-Epic Games exec Tascan took over at Netflix Games back in July 2024, and at GDC in March he also said that ‘big-screen’ games were still on the agenda plus some other, more “surprising” and “unexpected” launches.
He later told us that Netflix is in the early stages of building out its broader games platform, and even its own answer to Fortnite, Roblox or Minecraft in the social gaming space. Netflix also has the “grit and the resilience” to stick with games long-term, he said.
But after all that talk, there’s been little to shout about since April, when Netflix launched World of Peppa Pig and Black Mirror tie-in game Thronglets.
Appmagic data suggests these two games have been among the streaming giant’s biggest hits to date, with the kid-friendly World of Peppa Pig attracting around 2.5m downloads and the more niche, adult-skewed Thronglets on around 2.3m installs to date.
But it’s been very quiet since then; Netflix has released just two new games since late April. Blood Line: A Rebel Moon Game was made by Vainglory creator Super Evil Megacorp and released in July, a belated tie-in with the Zack Snyder film. And this month, it launched Underwatermelon: Fruit Merge, a title from Next Games – the Finnish studio it acquired in 2022.
According to Appmagic data, Blood Line has generated around 230k installs since July, while Underwatermelon has racked up about 166k downloads since it launched on September 10.
The live Netflix games catalogue now totals around 100 games, according to Appmagic data; that’s about half Apple Arcade’s 200ish live games, though the iPhone maker has been running its games subscription service since September 2019.
Netflix started adding games in 2021, but has also been removing titles from its catalogue this summer, as we reported back in June. Over 20 games are leaving or have left the service, including several high profile indie games like Hades, Braid and all three Monument Valley games, the most recent of which was released in November 2024.
While publicly the service is undergoing a new game drought, behind the scenes, a raft of job ads suggest the streaming giant is still hiring aggressively to build out its games team – and it is offering big salaries to successful candidates.
At the time of writing, a director of gen AI role offers up to $840k, and a new product management director could earn up to $700k.
Netflix is also on the hunt for a studio director for its party/couch gaming vertical, who could take home as much as $620k. Most of the roles are based in LA or California, with remote roles seemingly offering much less.
There are also multiple open roles at Next Games in Finland, while its very low-key Moonloot Studio, also in Finland, is hiring a game artist that can work in 2D and 3D.
When asked, Netflix declined to comment on its future plans.
