What Are Netflix’s Most Popular Games? What Do They Tell Us About Their Changing Strategy?

Pictures: AnnaPuna, Netflix, Ninja Kiwi, Rockstar Games In November 2021, Netflix ventured into a brand-new medium—gaming. While it had previously experimented with game production and distribution, it had never launched games within its own ecosystem. Fast-forward nearly four years, and Netflix’s gaming library has expanded to over 100 mobile titles and more than a dozen on its cloud gaming platform. However, as we’ve been reporting, things are changing. So, where is Netflix Games headed next, and what does the data reveal? Over the past six months, Netflix Games has made headlines, but not always for the right reasons. It all started with the closure of a major AAA studio and then the news that they’re pushing into AI gaming (which went down like a plate of cold sick). Then, in December, Netflix removed over a dozen titles from its catalog. January brought more disappointing news as Netflix canceled several upcoming games, including Crashlands 2, Tales of the Shire, Don’t Starve Together, Lab Rat, and several others. That’s in addition to recent layoffs at one of their internal studios. What is actually working for Netflix Games? Are there signs of a shifting strategy? Despite setbacks, is Netflix making adjustments? Let’s take a closer look at what’s working and what that means for the future of games on Netflix. What are Netflix’s most popular games? Unfortunately, Netflix does not provide long-term concrete data on its mobile games. However, we can gather insights from a few different sources to determine what’s currently working on Netflix Games. One key indicator is the Top 10 Mobile Games row, which occasionally appears in the Netflix mobile app. This ranking is believed to be based on daily engagement, offering the best glimpse into which games are attracting the most playtime. This list updates daily, though, from our observations, it doesn’t tend to change significantly day-to-day. For example, the only recent shift was CIV 7, which moved into 10th place yesterday. Here’s what the list looks like as of February 24th: Solitaire GTA: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition Squid Game: Unleashed Football Manager 2024 Bloons TD 6 Netflix Stories Word Trails Too Hot To Handle 3 Storyteller Sonic Mania Plus  Picture: Netflix App What about downloads? SensorTower is our best tool for that information, as they provide downloads for the last 30 days. Of course, there are pitfalls with data like this. Much like the daily Netflix top 10, it only provides a snapshot of what’s popular right now and not representative of overall downloads. It’s also not as important as engagement, but we’ve observed that the two do overlap.  Their data does provide downloads over the last 30 days, so what was the most downloaded between January 24th and February 24th? 36 titles acquired over 50,000 downloads (full sheet here), with 22 getting over 100,000 downloads in a single month. For context, Netflix’s main app gets around 14 million monthly downloads on Android and iOS.  Game Name Android Downloads iOS Downloads Last 30 Day Totals GTA: San Andreas – NETFLIX 900K 1M 1.9M Squid Game: Unleashed 500K 1,000K 1.5M Storyteller Game 300K 200K 500K Too Hot to Handle 3 200K 300K 500K Sonic Mania Plus – NETFLIX 300K 100K 400K Bloons TD 6 NETFLIX 200K 200K 400K Civilization VI: NETFLIX 100K 300K 400K Carmen Sandiego NETFLIX 200K 100K 300K Farming Simulator 23 NETFLIX 200K 100K 300K Netflix Stories 100K 200K 300K Sonic Prime Dash 200K 80K 280K Football Manager 2024 Mobile 100K 100K 200K SpongeBob: Get Cooking 100K 90K 190K Snake.io NETFLIX 100K 80K 180K Classic Solitaire NETFLIX 90K 70K 160K Monument Valley NETFLIX 60K 100K 160K Secrets by Episode NETFLIX 60K 100K 160K Asphalt Xtreme 100K 40K 140K Dead Cells: Netflix Edition 90K 50K 140K Monument Valley 3 NETFLIX 20K 100K 120K Ludo King NETFLIX 100K 9K 109K Scriptic Netflix Edition 30K 70K 100K HELLO KITTY HAPPINESS PARADE 60K 30K 90K Into the Dead 2: Unleashed 50K 40K 90K Twelve Minutes 40K 40K 80K Dumb Ways to Survive NETFLIX 30K 50K 80K Monument Valley 2 NETFLIX 20K 60K 80K TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge 40K 30K 70K Word Trails NETFLIX 40K 30K 70K Pinball Masters NETFLIX 40KK 20K 60K TRANSFORMERS Forged to Fight 40K 20K 60K Exploding Kittens NETFLIX 30K 30K 60K Katana ZERO NETFLIX 30K 30 60K RollerCoaster Tycoon NETFLIX 20K 40K 60K Hades N/A 50K 50K What about the overall most downloaded titles? Fortunately, the Google Play Store provides a broad ranking of the most downloaded games, allowing us to analyze Netflix’s library based on these figures. Perhaps unsurprisingly, games that have been available the longest tend to dominate this list, benefiting from extended exposure and accumulated downloads over time. Let’s break down Netflix’s library according to these download ranges. 10M - 50M downloads (2 titles) GTA: San Andreas Storyteller Game 5M - 10M downloads (3 titles) Bloons TD 6 NETFLIX SpongeBob: Get Cooking Squid Game: Unleashed 1M - 5M downloads (30 titles) Asphalt Xtreme Bowling Ballers Classic Solitaire NETFLIX Cut the Rope Daily Dead Cells: Netflix Edition Exploding Kittens NETFLIX Farming Simulator 23 NETFLIX Football Manager 2024 Mobile HELLO KITTY HAPPINESS PARADE Into the Dead 2: Unleashed La Casa de Papel: Ultimate Choices LEGO® Legacy: Heroes Unboxed Ludo King NETFLIX Netflix Stories Pinball Masters NETFLIX Scriptic Netflix Edition Snake.io NETFLIX Sonic Mania Plus – NETFLIX Sonic Prime Dash Stranger Things 3: The Game Stranger Things: 1984 Teeter Up: Remastered Terra Nil THTH: Love Is a Game NETFLIX TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge Too Hot to Handle 2 NETFLIX Too Hot to Handle 3 TRANSFORMERS Forged to Fight Twelve Minutes World of Goo Remastered 500K - 1M (30 titles) Cats & Soup Netflix Edition Civilization VI: NETFLIX CoComelon: Play with JJ Death’s Door Dumb Ways to Survive NETFLIX FashionVerse NETFLIX Game Dev Tycoon Into the Breach Katana ZERO NETFLIX Knittens Krispee Street Laya’s Horizon Monument Valley 3 NETFLIX Monument Valley NETFLIX Nailed It! Baking Bash Nailed It! Baking Bash Narcos: Cartel Wars Unlimited NETFLIX Before Your Eyes NETFLIX Mahjong Solitaire OXENFREE: Netflix Edition Rainbow Six: SMOL – NETFLIX Raji: An Ancient Epic Reigns: Three Kingdoms Shooting Hoops Spiritfarer Netflix Edition Spiritfarer: Netflix Edition Townsmen – A Kingdom Rebuilt Valiant Hearts: Coming Home Wonderputt Forever Word Trails NETFLIX 100K - 500K (39 titles) Arcanium: Rise of Akhan Battleship NETFLIX Braid: Anniversary Edition Card Blast! Carmen Sandiego NETFLIX Country Friends Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit Dragon Up! Dust & Neon Ghost Detective Heads Up! Netflix Edition Hearts NETFLIX Highwater IMMORTALITY Kentucky Route Zero Lucky Luna Minesweeper NETFLIX Monument Valley 2 NETFLIX Moonlighter NETFLIX OXENFREE II: Lost Signal Paper Trail Poinpy NETFLIX Puzzle Gods Relic Hunters: Rebels Rival Pirates RollerCoaster Tycoon NETFLIX SHADOW AND BONE Enter the Fold Shatter Remastered Skies of Chaos SpongeBob: Bubble Pop NETFLIX TED Tumblewords NETFLIX The Case of the Golden Idol The Queen’s Gambit: Chess The Rise of the Golden Idol The Ultimatum: Choices NETFLIX This is a True Story Tomb Raider Reloaded NETFLIX Vineyard Valley Wild Things Animal Adventures 50K - 100K (5 titles) Arranger NETFLIX Diner Out: Merge Cafe Flutter Butterflies NETFLIX Secrets by Episode NETFLIX Sports Sports NETFLIX What’s working for Netflix Mobile Games? Given the stats above, what exactly is working? I’d categorize the successes into several key buckets, though it’s important to note that there are certainly exceptions for each. . Big IP with Big Player or Fan Bases It’s no surprise that Grand Theft Auto is Netflix’s biggest game. As one of the most successful video game franchises in history, securing all three titles was a major win for the platform. Other high-performing games, such as Bloons TD, Football Manager, Farming Simulator, SpongeBob, and Sonic, also benefit from strong name recognition and long-established fanbases. These franchises already have dedicated player bases, making them easy wins for Netflix. Netflix IP Squid Game: Unleashed stands out as Netflix’s biggest internally developed game to date, and this strategy of releasing a big tie-in game is expected to expand significantly in 2025. The inclusion of Netflix Stories as one of the most engaged titles makes perfect sense, given its regular updates and well-timed content drops. Dating sims based on Netflix’s reality series also seems to be a continued winner – hence the number of releases! The strategy seems to be clear. Is there a major Netflix show or movie release on the horizon? Capitalize on that momentum by launching a game while it’s still fresh in the audience’s mind. Netflix can also actively build gaming communities (and be in full control) around these games, which has worked particularly well with Squid Game: Unleashed. Simple Games (SEO Optimized too!) It’s amusing that Solitaire is Netflix’s most-played game on any given day, but sometimes, simplicity is key. What works—works. This game also benefits from strong SEO optimization, making it highly discoverable in the Play Store and iOS App Store without requiring direct interaction with Netflix. What’s not working as well? Indie games, as a whole, seem to be the biggest losers (with Storyteller being the main outlier) from the lists above, and also, surprisingly, in my eyes, puzzle games. The match-3 games arguably have defined mobile gaming, but they just don’t seem to capture the same audiences when you’re not being bombarded with micro-transactions and ads…  What’s Next for Netflix Games? Netflix’s evolution in gaming, with its peaks and troughs, mirrors its expansion into animation in my opinion. When Netflix first entered the animation space, it poured money into various projects and talent to see what would stick. It was a Golden Age. Once it gained a clearer understanding of the landscape—or external circumstances played a role—it began prioritizing and pulling back in specific areas. For animation, this meant scaling back riskier projects without strong IP backing while increasing investments in pay-1 deals with Universal and Sony to secure their animation output. Netflix is still investing in animation, but its approach looks significantly different from when it first entered the space. While mobile has been the primary focus of Netflix Games up to this point, all signs suggest that the next major expansion will be into gaming on TV. The Cloud Beta streaming initiative has been ongoing for some time, but job listings and statements from top Netflix executives indicate that this is the next key area of development. Additionally, it’s still early days for AI, and its potential impact on Netflix Games remains uncertain. Like Apple Arcade, Netflix Games will continue to evolve, adjusting its strategy based on engagement and market response. As gaming expands onto the big screen, we can expect similar refinements along the way. At its core, Netflix’s number one goal across its business is actually really simple—engagement. The more time users spend watching and playing, the more likely they are to maintain their subscriptions. Currently, Netflix’s engagement strategy is built on two pillars: TV and movies, which have solidified its position as the world’s leading streaming service. The question now is whether it can establish “live” content and gaming as equally important pillars. Time will tell.