Netflix may have finally figured out games
Netflix may have finally figured out games
Netflix 可能终于摸清了游戏业务的门道
The new TV-based games feel right. 全新的电视端游戏体验恰到好处。
By Andrew Webster | May 10, 2026 作者：Andrew Webster | 2026年5月10日
How it started
起步阶段
Boggle has become a spectator sport in my household. Everyone crowds around the TV while one of us plays, and the crowd either helps shout out words or waits patiently for their turn. There’s a lot of yelling. But it’s a game that my family can hop into easily, and once someone starts playing, it seems everyone slowly drifts into the room to join in. The surprising part is that the experience is happening entirely through Netflix.
《Boggle》（拼字游戏）在我家已经变成了一项“观赏性运动”。每当有人玩的时候，大家都会围在电视机前，要么帮忙大声喊出单词，要么耐心地等待轮到自己。现场总是充满了欢呼声。这是一款我家人能轻松上手的游戏，一旦有人开始玩，似乎所有人都会慢慢聚到房间里加入进来。令人惊讶的是，这一切体验完全是通过 Netflix 实现的。
The streaming giant has been trying to crack gaming for half a decade now, and outside of a few rare hits like Grand Theft Auto and Squid Game: Unleashed, it hasn’t made much of a dent. But with its relatively new TV games, which launched last year and include the likes of Boggle as well as party games based on everything from Lego to Knives Out, Netflix may have finally figured out gaming that makes sense for the service. You don’t even need controllers: Each player just uses their own smartphone.
这家流媒体巨头在游戏领域已经摸索了五年，除了《侠盗猎车手》和《鱿鱼游戏：释放》等少数几款热门作品外，并没有取得太大进展。但随着去年推出的电视端游戏（包括《Boggle》以及基于《乐高》和《利刃出鞘》等题材的派对游戏），Netflix 可能终于找到了适合其平台的“游戏之道”。你甚至不需要手柄：每位玩家只需使用自己的智能手机即可操作。
As Netflix continues to expand beyond traditional TV and movie offerings, getting into everything from live sports to talent competitions with audience interaction, these kinds of games could eventually become a pillar of the service. And it all starts with Boggle.
随着 Netflix 继续超越传统的电视和电影业务，涉足从体育直播到带有观众互动的才艺竞赛等各个领域，这类游戏最终可能成为该服务的支柱之一。而这一切，都始于《Boggle》。
How it’s going
现状如何
It’s been a rough road to this point. Netflix first started rolling out games in 2021, and initially, it seemed like a great deal. Games are included as part of a regular subscription, and at first the service offered a nicely curated selection of mobile games. There were ports of beloved indie titles like the sci-fi strategy game Into the Breach, as well as exclusive titles like the exhilarating adventure Laya’s Horizon. These sat alongside games based on Netflix shows like The Queen’s Gambit and Love Is Blind. If you were looking for high-quality games for your phone, Netflix was a surprisingly great platform.
走到今天这一步并不容易。Netflix 于 2021 年首次推出游戏，起初这看起来是一笔划算的买卖。游戏被包含在常规订阅中，最初该服务提供了一系列精心挑选的手机游戏。其中包括像科幻策略游戏《陷阵之志》（Into the Breach）这样备受喜爱的独立游戏移植版，以及像令人振奋的冒险游戏《拉雅的远方》（Laya’s Horizon）这样的独占作品。这些游戏与基于《女王的棋局》和《爱是盲目的》等 Netflix 剧集改编的游戏并列。如果你在寻找高质量的手机游戏，Netflix 当时是一个令人惊喜的绝佳平台。
The problem is that few people seemed to notice — early reports suggested that less than 1 percent of subscribers actually played games. This didn’t stop Netflix from trying. It invested heavily in the space, adding major games to the platform, acquiring developers, and at one point even trying to build a AAA level studio of its own. But there was no consistency, and the strategy shifted constantly.
问题在于似乎没多少人注意到这一点——早期报告显示，只有不到 1% 的订阅用户真正玩过这些游戏。但这并没有阻止 Netflix 的尝试。它在该领域投入巨资，向平台添加大型游戏，收购开发商，甚至一度试图建立自己的 3A 级工作室。但其策略缺乏连贯性，且一直在不断调整。
For instance, last year Netflix’s president of games Alain Tascan outlined four key pillars that would define the company’s gaming efforts, telling me that “we need to find our voice.” But there have been changes even since then. Two of the games highlighted during that event in 2025 were the battle royale Squid Game: Unleashed and the upcoming cozy MMO Spirit Crossing; since then Netflix shut down the studio behind Unleashed and Spirit Crossing developer Spry Fox bought itself out from Netflix in order to go independent. The streamer has thrown a lot of money at the gaming problem, but has mostly met with failure. That AAA studio shut down before it ever even released a game.
例如，去年 Netflix 游戏总裁 Alain Tascan 概述了定义公司游戏业务的四大支柱，并告诉我“我们需要找到自己的声音”。但自那以后，情况又发生了变化。2025 年那次活动中重点介绍的两款游戏分别是大逃杀类游戏《鱿鱼游戏：释放》和即将推出的治愈系 MMO《Spirit Crossing》；此后，Netflix 关闭了负责《释放》的工作室，而《Spirit Crossing》的开发商 Spry Fox 则从 Netflix 回购了股份以寻求独立。这家流媒体巨头在游戏问题上投入了大量资金，但大多以失败告终。那个 3A 工作室甚至在发布任何游戏之前就关闭了。
Gaming is not an easy space to compete in. Other wealthy companies like Amazon have largely struggled to make headway, and even massively popular games like Fortnite are struggling. The issue with Netflix, though, is that its gaming efforts always felt separate from everything else it was doing. Hades on my phone is cool, but it’s also something I had to actively know about and search for. It’s not something I can stumble on while browsing Netflix, and it’s not something that will keep me in the main Netflix app, which is what the company wants.
游戏领域竞争激烈，并不容易立足。像亚马逊这样财力雄厚的公司也大多难以取得进展，即便是像《堡垒之夜》这样极其热门的游戏也面临挑战。然而，Netflix 的问题在于，它的游戏业务总是让人感觉与平台其他内容脱节。手机上的《哈迪斯》很酷，但我必须主动了解并搜索才能找到它。它不是我在浏览 Netflix 时能偶然发现的东西，也不是能让我留在 Netflix 主应用里的东西，而这正是公司所期望的。
But the new TV games solve that issue. Before, Netflix’s games were separate apps you downloaded on your phone. Now they’re found in the same place as everything else on Netflix — there’s a tab at the top of the app alongside movies and television — making them seamlessly feel like part of the service. My family can watch Wake Up Dead Man and then immediately play a Knives Out–themed mystery game afterwards. Games are no longer a separate service Netflix operates, they’re just part of Netflix.
但新的电视端游戏解决了这个问题。以前，Netflix 的游戏是需要你在手机上下载的独立应用。现在，它们与 Netflix 上的其他内容位于同一位置——应用顶部有一个与电影和电视并列的标签页——这让它们无缝地融入了服务之中。我的家人可以看完《唤醒死者》，然后立即玩上一款《利刃出鞘》主题的推理游戏。游戏不再是 Netflix 运营的一项独立服务，它们就是 Netflix 的一部分。
What happens next
未来展望
The TV games appear to be off to a good start, but there are a few things that need to happen before they can truly become a core pillar of Netflix. For one thing, they need some variety. There’s a lot of potential to expand the offerings and reach different audiences. Netflix’s early lineup of TV games has mostly focused on family-friendly party games, but the company has also seen success with early narrative experiments like the choose-your-own-adventure Black Mirror spinoff Bandersnatch. The Stranger Things-esque adventure game Oxenfree is currently available on TVs (Netflix acquired Oxenfree developer Night School in 2021), which is a good first step at broadening the scope of available games. There’s plenty more room to grow.
电视端游戏似乎有了一个良好的开端，但在它们真正成为 Netflix 的核心支柱之前，还有几件事需要完成。首先，它们需要多样化。在扩展产品阵容和触达不同受众方面，还有很大的潜力。Netflix 早期的电视游戏阵容主要集中在合家欢派对游戏上，但该公司在早期的叙事实验中也取得了成功，例如《黑镜》的互动电影衍生作《潘达斯奈基》。类似《怪奇物语》风格的冒险游戏《Oxenfree》目前已在电视端上线（Netflix 于 2021 年收购了《Oxenfree》的开发商 Night School），这是拓宽游戏范围的良好第一步。未来还有很大的增长空间。
The games also need to be more widely available. Right now Netflix’s TV games are in something of a beta, as they’re available on some platforms — mostly smart TVs and streaming boxes — but not all. For instance, I can play games through Netflix on my Roku stick, but not my Apple TV. Making them a ubiquitous part of the platform, no matter what device you’re on, will be key.
这些游戏还需要更广泛地普及。目前 Netflix 的电视游戏还处于某种“测试阶段”，因为它们仅在部分平台（主要是智能电视和流媒体盒子）上可用，而非全部。例如，我可以通过 Roku 电视棒在 Netflix 上玩游戏，但在 Apple TV 上却不行。无论用户使用什么设备，都能无处不在地使用这些游戏，将是成功的关键。
Most importantly, Netflix needs to stick with it. This won’t work if the company decides to change up its strategy yet again in a few months. It needs to give its subscribers time.
最重要的是，Netflix 需要坚持下去。如果公司几个月后又决定改变策略，这一切都不会奏效。它需要给订阅用户留出时间。