As part of the quarterly figures for the second quarter of this year, Netflix has confirmed and substantiated the latest rumors about the addition of games to the offer. Accordingly, mobile games are in the foreground at the beginning of the efforts, with which Netflix would like to stimulate the stagnant growth again.
Games are free for subscribers
Netflix has also confirmed that the game offer for subscribers will be a free extension and will not incur any additional fees. A component of the gaming efforts should also be interactive content that matches the respective series or films on Netflix. With the announcement, Netflix emphasizes that despite the new category, the series and films will continue to grow in the coming years and will be supported with investments. After a decade in the market with Netflix, however, it is time to learn more about how their own users value games. In the past, Netflix had pointed out that it viewed games as competition for its own service when it came to getting users' time and attention. Co-CEO Reed Hastings once said that you lose more users to Fortnite than to HBO.
No date or details about content yet
Netflix said in the context of the quarterly figures, however, still not what kind of games it should be initially, except that it will focus on mobile games for smartphones. How the games will be made available to subscribers and integrated into the offer is still open. The company also owes a timeframe for the release of the first game on Netflix. Rumors still assume that it will be so far in the first half of 2022, but this has not been confirmed.
Netflix is growing more slowly
Netflix continued to grow weak in the second quarter of this year. Fewer new customers were won than in any quarter before. Netflix gained 1.5 million new subscribers in the second quarter, so that around 209 million subscribers now use the service. In the 2nd quarter of 2020, Netflix was able to gain a little over 10 million new users. Above all, Asia, with 1 million new subscribers, has ensured growth in the past three months. The strong growth at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic is distorting the year-on-year comparison, according to Netflix, but the time users spend on Netflix has fallen again this year. In the 3rd quarter, Netflix wants to gain 3.5 million new subscribers, which would be more than the 2.2 million from the 3rd quarter of 2020.
Sales were in the last quarter with 7.34 billion US dollars 19.4 percent above the previous year and fell slightly below expectations. The same applies to the profit, which amounts to 1.35 billion US dollars.