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Netflix acquired Ready Player Me, an Estonia-based avatar technology company, in December 2025. The deal gives Netflix tools it says it plans to use to let subscribers create avatars and carry their identity across Netflix games—a potential fit for its growing lineup of TV-based party games. The purchase price was not disclosed, and Netflix has not announced a launch date or promised that avatars will work in every game.
What Netflix acquired
Ready Player Me built technology for creating avatars that could be used across participating games and virtual experiences. It was an avatar platform, not a game studio or social network. Netflix’s reported plan was to use the company’s tools and infrastructure to build reusable identities for its games. TechCrunch reported the acquisition on December 19, 2025.
The transaction’s financial terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch reported that Ready Player Me had about 20 employees and that co-founder and CTO Rainer Selvet joined Netflix; it said the other three members of the four-person founding group did not. The company had raised approximately $72 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Endeavor, Konvoy Ventures and Plural, as well as prominent founders associated with Roblox, Twitch and King, according to the same report.
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Netflix has been moving beyond mobile games toward games delivered through the television experience. For some TV games, a phone can serve as the controller, lowering the need for dedicated console hardware and making casual multiplayer a natural use case. Availability and supported devices can differ by game and region.
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In its January 2026 shareholder materials, Netflix listed Boggle, Pictionary, LEGO Party and Tetris among TV party games made available to roughly one-third of its members at that time, and described early results as encouraging. Netflix’s game strategy also includes narrative, party and puzzle, mainstream, and kids titles—not just party games. Netflix’s shareholder filing describes the TV-game rollout; its January 2026 shareholder letter outlines its game categories and examples.
What a shared avatar could add
- Continuity: Players could reuse a persona rather than start over in each supported game.
- Recognition: A familiar character could make it easier for friends and family to recognize one another in multiplayer sessions.
- Personalization: Avatars could give games a visual identity connected to Netflix entertainment, though no specific franchise costumes or customization system has been announced.
- Common infrastructure: Netflix could build shared avatar tools for its games rather than having every studio create an entirely separate system.
The strategic bet is broader than adding character creators: a persistent identity might help games feel connected as part of a subscription and living-room experience. Netflix has said games support goals such as engagement and retention, but that is a company rationale, not evidence that avatars will produce those results. Netflix’s investor materials discuss those aims.
What subscribers can expect now
Ready Player Me’s former standalone services were discontinued on January 31, 2026, according to the company’s service notice. The acquisition should therefore not be read as a continuing Ready Player Me consumer service, or as proof that Netflix has already launched avatars. As of August 18, 2026, the cited public materials do not document a full Netflix avatar rollout.
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Netflix has not confirmed a universal avatar usable in every game, supported devices or regions, visibility to other players, child-profile access, avatar deletion or customization rules, or any paid cosmetics plan. There is also no announced date for a subscriber-facing avatar feature. The likeliest place for a visible result, if Netflix ships one, is inside future games rather than on the discontinued Ready Player Me site.
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Portability and game design
A shared avatar has to fit games with different art styles, body proportions, animation systems and age ratings. Netflix may choose to support it in selected titles rather than force one character system across games where it does not fit.
Children, privacy and moderation
Because Netflix serves families and children, any multiplayer identity system raises practical questions: whether children’s avatars are visible to strangers, what profile controls apply, and how names, clothing, gestures or other user-created elements are moderated. The public materials cited here do not specify how Netflix would handle those details for a future avatar feature.
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Licensing and platform differences
Using a Netflix-owned character or costume in a game can still depend on rights tied to a particular title or territory. Meanwhile, phones, smart TVs and streaming devices differ in capability, so a feature available on one platform might not behave identically on another.
Technology purchase, not necessarily a new social network
The most cautious reading is that Netflix bought technology and expertise to develop its games. The deal alone does not establish a metaverse, a public avatar network, a virtual-goods economy, or a plan to license the tools to outside developers. Netflix could also opt for game-specific characters or simpler profile icons instead of a portable 3D avatar.
Netflix’s broader gaming push
The Ready Player Me acquisition sits within a wider effort to make games another part of Netflix’s entertainment offering. In its January 2026 shareholder letter, Netflix said it had launched Netflix Playground, a standalone app for kids, and reported that about 10% of kids’ profiles had played Netflix games. Those are Netflix-reported figures, not independently audited measures of market-wide adoption.
For subscribers, the deal is best understood as groundwork: Netflix is trying to connect its games more closely to its account and TV experience, while the avatar feature itself remains unannounced as a complete product. The company’s 2026 entertainment slate announcement provides further context on its games and programming plans.
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