Netflix Games, Five Years In: From GTA on Your Phone to Party Games on the TV

When Netflix said in 2021 that it was getting into video games, the reaction ranged from curious to baffled. A company that made its fortune from binge-watching was going to compete with Tencent and Supercell? Five years later, the answer is: not exactly. But Netflix Games has turned into something stranger and more interesting than many expected.

The service launched in November 2021, offering mobile games to Netflix subscribers at no extra cost, with no ads and no in-app purchases. Its library has since included some of the most acclaimed games of the past decade, from Grand Theft Auto to Hades, alongside games based on Netflix shows. After an expensive detour into big-budget development, the company has narrowed its focus to a few clear areas, including party games played on the TV.

How it works

Netflix Games are included with every Netflix plan. Most are mobile games you download from the App Store or Google Play and then sign in to with your Netflix account. There is nothing else to pay inside the games. Some can also be played on TVs, using your phone as the controller.

The first titles in 2021 were small: two Stranger Things games, plus simple card and arcade games. The quality jumped quickly as Netflix started buying studios and licensing well-known games.

The shopping spree

Between 2021 and 2022, Netflix acquired several game studios, among them Night School Studio, makers of the eerie narrative adventure Oxenfree, Finland's Next Games, Boss Fight Entertainment and Spry Fox. It also opened internal studios, including a team in Southern California led by veterans of big console franchises to make an ambitious AAA game.

At the same time, licensing deals brought in some heavyweights. In December 2023, Netflix released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, covering GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas, on phones for subscribers. Hades, Supergiant's award-winning action game, arrived on iPhone through Netflix in 2024. Other critically loved indies, such as Into the Breach and Spiritfarer, joined the catalogue too.

The reset

Big-budget ambitions did not last. In October 2024, Netflix closed its AAA studio before its first game was announced. Earlier that year it had hired Alain Tascan, a long-time Epic Games executive, as president of games.

Under Tascan, Netflix has described a more focused approach built around a few types of game: titles for children, narrative games, often tied to Netflix shows, mainstream casual games, and party games designed to be played together on a TV, with phones used as controllers. The most visible tie-in of this period was Squid Game: Unleashed, a multiplayer game based on the hit Korean series, released in December 2024 and offered free even to people without a Netflix subscription.

What is worth playing

If you already pay for Netflix, a few games are worth checking:

• Hades: one of the best action games of its generation, complete, on your phone.
• Into the Breach: a small, brilliant tactics game that suits short sessions.
• Oxenfree and its sequel: atmospheric ghost stories from Netflix's own studio.
• Party games on the TV: good for family evenings, no extra controllers required.

The catalogue changes over time, and some games leave when licences end, so check the Games row in the Netflix app.

Why it matters

Netflix Games is a test of a simple idea: that games can be a perk that keeps people subscribed, rather than a business that must earn on its own. That frees the service from in-app purchases, which is good for players, but it also means Netflix will keep chasing whatever keeps viewers around. For mobile gaming, it is another sign that the subscription model, also tried by Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass, is here to stay, even if it never overtakes free-to-play.