Netflix has been experimenting with video games for a while, but is the streaming giant going to eventually drop out of gaming? That’s the question Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw put to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the Screentime event this week.
Regarding whether Netflix will still host games in five years, Sarandos said, “I think so.” He said Netflix’s push into mobile gaming was “a gateway to cloud gaming,” which is something Netflix is “much more interested in.”
Netflix hosts a variety of mobile games, including Red Dead Redemption, Sonic Mania Plus, and RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, just to name a few. The games are included with a Netflix membership and have no ads. Netflix also hosts streaming games that can be played on your TV, and they are more family- and party-focused.
Netflix’s gaming ambitions have bounced around over the years. At one point, the company wanted to make big, AAA games, and hired some big names to get it done. However, Netflix later wound down these efforts, closing studios and laying off staff in the process, leading many to wonder what Netflix’s ambition for video games actually was.
Sarandos said cloud gaming makes more sense for Netflix “in a post-console world.” He didn’t elaborate here, but it sounds like he’s talking about a future where more and more people play games without dedicated hardware like a PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch console. All of those systems have gone up in price in recent times due to AI-fueled component and memory issues, along with bigger global macroeconomic trends.
The cloud gaming market hasn’t popped the way some have predicted, but Sarandos isn’t the only person who is optimistic about the future potential. Strauss Zelnick, the head of GTA 6 owner Take-Two recently said, “I think we’ll be in commercial streaming mode within three years.”
Sarandos said there will be “all kinds of opportunities for gaming on the television,” and the executive said Netflix wanted to be “early invested in that.”
“I like it for IP extension. I certainly like it for brand value, for people who want to spend time on that screen gaming instead of watching, then we have an option for them,” he said.
Also in the interview, Sarandos was asked if Netflix would again reach into its coffers to buy a large-scale gaming company to help its gaming ambitions become realized faster. The interviewer asked if Netflix could buy Take-Two or Xbox, and Sarandos said it doesn’t have any specific plans to buy more gaming studios, though he’s not ruling anything out either. For what it’s worth, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma recently said Xbox is not for sale, while Take-Two selling itself would be shocking.
Sarandos said Netflix prefers to grow organically instead of buying companies to spur growth. Of course, this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, as evidenced by Netflix offering to buy Warner Bros. Discover for many billions of dollars before Paramount swooped in and made a deal. He said Netflix went after WBD because the company was “so clean” and contained only the elements and assets of the business that Netflix actually wanted, and that was rare.
Netflix will look at other opportunities to buy game studios if they complement the company’s wider business goals, Sarandos said.
In other news about cloud gaming, Microsoft has reportedly canceled its new controller for it, ahead of price hikes to the service soon.
Netflix has also said it’s still very early days for its gaming output, saying the company has “tons more work to do.” Netflix’s financial investment in gaming is minuscule relative to its other business areas, and management sees gaming as a “significant market opportunity.” Netflix investors no doubt want to see Netflix find new ways to make money; after all, Netflix stock has crashed more than 25% in 2026 so far.