To retain its subscribers, Netflix is ​​also betting on video games

The loss of subscribers suffered by Netflix in the first quarter (-200,000 customers) is cause for concern for the platform. It’s not yet a haemorrhage, especially since the service has paid cash for the loss of 700,000 Russian subscribers who no longer have access to its services because of the war in Ukraine. But the forecasts for the spring are very pessimistic (-2 million customers).

Netflix is ​​preparing countermeasures such as charging for account sharing or an ad-supported formula. All of that won’t happen for another year or two, though, and to retain subscribers who are clearly growing in number wanting to watch elsewhere, the streaming service is betting on content first and foremost. And also, about games.

Netflix’s catalog of mobile games (iOS and Android) accessible free of charge by Netflix subscribers has grown from 5 titles at the end of November to around 20 today. The goal is to reach 50 games by the end of the year. Most of them are mainly there to pass the time between two episodes, but some show more ambition and above all, there is a strategy behind this initiative.

Netflix is ​​indeed putting the means to buy studios, as in March with the acquisition of Next Games which has a particularity: it specializes in the development of video games taken from TV series. That’s pretty damn good!

According to washington post, the group is looking to adapt more of its content in the form of video games (the reverse is also true, with series adaptations of the games Cuphead, League of Legends or Castlevania). Netflix’s strategy is to ” build a video game activity that creates synergies between people who watch and those who play “. We see it with the Trivia Quest quiz and the concomitant launch of an animated series and the video game version of the card game Exploding Kittens.