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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Paul Speed

Netflix has a feature you're paying for but probably didn't know about

Did you even know that you can play games on Netflix?

It appears many users haven't a clue - with only one per cent (1.7m) of subscribers seeking them out on a daily basis.

This is astonishingly slight given Netflix's global 221 million subscribers, but the number of players is rising, albeit slowly.

Netflix announced a push into mobile gaming in November last year, starting with just five titles – Stranger Things: 1984, Stranger Things 3: The Game, Card Blast, Teeter Up and Shooting Hoops.

This has since expanded to include more than 20 games, including League of Legends spinoff Hextech Mayhem, a game based on the Exploding Kittens card game and strategy title Into The Breach.

The streaming giant also hopes to add a game based on its original coming-of-age period drama series The Queen’s Gambit.

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The colourful Poinpy is a fun little vertical-climber (Netflix/Devolver Digital Games)

'Up to 50 titles on offer by end of year'

Netflix aims to offer 50 games by the end of the year, teaming up with three indie games developers in a bid to achieve this.

According to data obtained by business and financial news site CNBC from app tracking group Apptopia, some 23.3 million users have downloaded Netflix games so far.

In January, Apptopia recorded eight million total game downloads, while in June analytics firm Sensor Tower said total downloads rose to 13 million. A relatively slow burner, then, but it appears to be working.

Into The Breach is proving a popular game for Netflix (Netflix/Subset Games)

'Some of the games are great'

Videogame website Kotaku says some of Netflix's games are actually really good, name-checking turn-based strategy Into The Breach among its favourites.

Elsewhere, tech website Gizmodo ranked all the games in order of greatness, with its top five including Poinpy - a fun little vertical climber; Wonderputt Forever - a neat little mini golf jaunt; Shatter Remastered - a unique brick-breaker; Krispy Street - a hidden object game and finally Relic Hunters: Rebels - a fun 'looter shooter'.

Subscribers using Android devices can access these titles for free from either the Netflix app or Google Play Store, while Apple’s rules mean users are directed to the App Store.

In April this year, Netflix reported losing subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, shedding 1.3 million more globally between May and the end of June.

News that players are slowly cottoning on to this relatively new avenue of revenue will be a big boost to the struggling streamer, as it hopes to reverse the trend of a dwindling user base.

As reported, Netflix already plans on rolling out an ad-supported tier by the end of this year, as well as currently overseeing a crack down on password sharing.

Full list of Netflix games:

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