Netflix Games Engagement Tripled in the Last Year, in Part Thanks to GTA

ign.com:

Netflix Games is doing better than ever, says Netflix. But that may not be saying much, given past data on the streaming service's gaming offering.

Today, Netflix reported its full-year earnings for fiscal 2023, during which it reported that gaming engagement "tripled" last year. This was in part due to the release of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy on the service near the end of the year. Netflix calls the GTA Trilogy its "most successful launch to date in terms of installs and engagement, with some consumers clearly signing up simply to play these games."

But while that's all well and good for Netflix, don't expect to see the streaming service competing with Sony and Xbox anytime soon. CNBC reported data from Apptopia back in October that indicated less than 1% of all Netflix's then roughly-250 million subscribers were playing a Netflix game on a daily basis.

Netflix seems aware of its own position as a grain of video game sand here, too. The company acknowledged itself that its games division was "small" and "certainly not yet material relative to our film and series business." It's intent on further growth, too, stating that it's interested in "broadening" its offerings in the space and continuing to invest. For now, it hasn't said anything further on rumors that it may introduce in-app purchases or ads to its games platform down the line - those ideas seem to just be discussions internally for now.

Elsewhere in Netflix's earnings, we learned that the company saw a 13 million subscriber surge in the final quarter of the year, and that it's planning to release Squid Game season 2 sometime in 2024.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.