It appears that Netflix‘s attempt to move into the gaming industry has started terribly. The news comes per a fresh report that states less than 1% of its global subscribers are playing the games that they are offering.
Apptopia, an app analytics company, has estimated that an average of 1.7 million users are engaging with the games on a daily business, which amounts to less than 1% of the service’s 221 million subscribers, as CNBC points out.
The platform, which has struggled against a changing market and shifting user tastes over the past couple of years, has made it clear that it will be accelerating its segue into video games, wanting to double what it has on offer by the end of 2022. However, there appears to be a fork in the road, with just a fraction of the users they hoped playing.
Since November 2021, Netflix has been introducing the games to keep users engaged between releases of shows. Interestingly, though these games are only accessible to subscribers, and in order to play, they are required to be downloaded as separate apps.
In the second quarter of this year, the service lost nearly a million subscribers, which followed on from losing 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter. This marked the first time the company had seen a subscriber decline in over a decade.
In a letter outlining its plans to shareholders last year, Netflix named Epic Games and TikTok among its greatest rivals for user’s time.
“One of the many advantages to Netflix in pursuing the strategy is the ability to drive engagement beyond when the show first comes out on the platform,” Tom Forte, a senior analyst at investment bank D.A Davidson was quoted as saying.
Despite this, it seems as if Netflix is aware of its position within the games industry. Last year, the company’s Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters disclosed that they are “many months and really, frankly, years” into being aware of they can keep their customers entertained.
