Earlier this month, Netflix added Riot Forge’s Hextech Mayhem to its steadily-growing catalogue of mobile games. The rhythm runner is set within the League of Legends universe, and marks Netflix’s first high-profile, mobile-exclusive title. It represents the first major launch for the service.

Drawing in a fresh gaming audience is a longer-term target 

Ideally, Netflix would like games to be downloadable via its existing video app to make the user experience more seamless and to keep users within its ecosystem. At present though, users have to exit the app and download the games individually within the respective app stores. While having games listed outside the Netflix app undermines the user experience, it does give the company another funnel of user acquisition into a Netflix subscription. However, until the games catalogue increases substantially - or there are more exclusive titles - this funnel is likely to have minimal impact on overall performance. Indeed, the company's focus will largely be on engaging existing subscribers with the games on offer.  

Acquiring or producing more exclusive games based on popular IP could address this, as fans will often follow a franchise across storefronts and platforms. The arrival of Hextech Mayhem will certainly enhance discoverability, and will likely have been costly. Netflix is certainly not lacking in budget, and it may just have the spending power to acquire desirable and unique content whilst it strives to create its own. 

Whilst Netflix Games has exclusive rights to the mobile version of Hextech Mayhem, the title was already available across PC and console. As a result, there was a wealth of existing hype surrounding a mobile launch.

Convergence of games and video is Netflix’s strength

Netflix has an existing relationship with Riot Games: they collaborated on the official League of Legends Netflix Original, Arcane, an animated series exploring the origins of two iconic heroes from the game. It received immaculate ratings, and indicated an appetite for the franchise beyond the games. League of Legends is particularly popular in select Asian markets; most notably China and South Korea, and Ampere Games consumer research (Q4, 2021) indicates that over a third of consumers in South Korea with access to Netflix had played League of Legends in the prior three months. The increase in games content appealing to these territories mirrors a broader, recent focus on South Korean TV and films; a reflection of Asia Pacific as a key growth area for Netflix.

Creating interplay between its video content and its games catalogue could be key to the on-going success of Netflix Games. In addition to exclusives, Netflix could do more to drive interest in games through its video offerings. At present, if you preview a game on the Netflix app, it recommends related TV shows and films that are also available on the service – but the reverse is currently not being done for video viewers. Currently, there are only 14 games available, but as the catalogue increases in size it is likely that game recommendations will be offered to users browsing TV and films. The recommendation algorithms are robust, but may need work to encompass games content as well. Netflix does have a colossal subscriber base, but converting those subscribers into Netflix Gamers, even without a paywall, will be a challenge.