With consistent monthly subscriber losses the current trend, Netflix continues to look for new ways to entice customers. One strategy they have employed, of late, is the addition of video games that are available at no extra charge (though they do require downloading a seperate app). Sure, it is diversifying their lineup, but is it an effective method?
It has been nearly a year since the [struggling] streaming giant introduced video games to the platform. And since that time, a paltry 1.7 million average daily users have downloaded a total of 23.3 million games. While that may sound impressive, this is less than 2 percent of Netflix’s 221 million subscribers.
Of coruse, the introduction of games is important, if not experimental. Still, the loss of a million subscribers in Q2 (following 200,000 cancellations in Q1) is certainly a signal that change is necessary. And having to compete with growing engagement among web and mobile apps like TikTok and the Epic Games browser adds a lot of pressure.
But even as Netflix moves forward in this expansion, Netflix Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters shares that the company still has a lot to learn about using video games to improve membership retention.
In a recent Q4 earnings call, Peters commented, “We’re going to be experimental and try a bunch of things. But I would say the eyes that we have on the long-term prize really center more around our ability to creat properties that are connected to the universe, the characters, the stories that we’re building.”
Currently, the streaming service offers 24 game/apps in its catalog, within categories that include native licenses like “Stranger Things: 1984” as well as popular [online] card games like Majong, Solitaire, and even Exploding Kittens.” By year’s end, the catalog is expected to double to at least 50 games, with the hopes that more Netflix-based titles like “Queeen’s Gambit Chess” is enough to bring in higher numbers.
Netflix has also hinted that it may expand to include external licenses as well, as Netflix Head of External Games Leanne Loombe explains, “We’re still intentionally keeping thins a little bit quiet because we’re still learning and experimenting and trying to figure out what things are going to actualldy resonate with our members, what games people want to play.”
