Netflix to enter gaming sector as new subscribers slow

Netflix added 1.54 million users in the last quarter and has confirmed it’s expanding into gaming.

The streaming giant finished the second quarter of 2021 with over 209 million paid memberships and anticipates a further 3.5 million subscriber additions over the next three months.

In the March quarter, Netflix added four million net new subscribers – two million less than originally forecast.

Announcing its June quarter trading for 2021, Netflix said it has spent $8 billion in cash on content and expects content amortisation to be around $12 billion for the full year.

“If we achieve our forecast, we will have added more than 54 million paid net adds over the past 24 months or 27 million on an annualised basis over that time period, which is consistent with our pre-Covid annual rate of net additions,” the company said.

Netflix also confirmed media speculation that it was moving into the gaming space. The company said it views gaming as a new content category, comparing it to its expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV.

Potential games will be included in Netflix subscriptions at no additional cost, the company said. Initially, the focus will be on mobile games.

“We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games,” the company said.