Netflix’s Most Played Mobile Game Is… Solitaire!?

Solitaire Most Played Netflix Game
Netflix’s Most Played Mobile Game Is… Solitaire!?

Picture: Netflix

Netflix Games has been going through a period of transition over the past year, but nevertheless, there are still well over 100 mobile games to be enjoyed as part of your subscription. Which ones are the most popular? We’ve crunched the numbers. 

In years prior, Netflix’s engagement data has been a bit of a black box, but that’s mostly no longer the case. Weekly top 40 figures are now available, and Netflix Engagement Reports cover viewership for the majority of titles, but that’s only for Netflix’s TV and movie library. While we have had some indicators as to what’s popular on Netflix in terms of gaming in the past, thanks to download metrics, we’ve not had any indication as to what’s picking up the most playtime. That’s until earlier this year when Netflix introduced the top 10s, which measure playtime and are updated daily, and reflect global playtime.

Covering daily Netflix Games mobile (note: the beta TV/web games are not included, so that means the Happy Gilmore demo and other titles on there aren’t eligible) top 10 data between May 7th and August 12th, here’s a look at what’s been played the most on Netflix. Note that points are assigned akin to how FlixPatrol works, whereby a first-place ranking will receive 10 points, while a tenth-place ranking might receive 1 point for each day featured.

Place Game Total Points Average Daily Rank
1 Solitaire 963 1.07
2 GTA: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition 852 2.22
3 Football Manager Mobile 2024 743 3.34
4 Bloons TD 6 658 4.22
5 Squid Game: Unleashed 517 5.67
6 Word Trails 508 5.76
7 Storyteller 340 7.14
8 World of Peppa Pig 267 7.44
9 Street Fighter IV CE 160 6.68
10 SpongeBob: Get Cooking 123 8.63
11 Single’s Inferno: Choices 72 8.12
12 Snake.io 52 9.7
13 Netflix Stories 41 9.76
14 Farming Simulator 23 36 10
15 Black Mirror: Thonglets 3 9.5

The performance of Netflix’s top games reveals clear trends about what’s resonating at the moment. Still, for the most part, the daily rankings don’t change dramatically with many titles remaining in the same positions for weeks on end. Only 15 of the 100+ games available were featured during this period. 

Casual and evergreen titles like Solitaire dominate the charts, suggesting that simple, low-commitment games with familiar mechanics are ideal for the platform’s broad and often passive user base. This version of MobilityWare is the exact same one that’s available on Apple Arcade, and the microtransaction-free equivalent is also available on app stores for free. Nothing special, no tie-ins to Netflix IP. Just regular old Solitaire. Remarkable really. 

Classic titles with strong brand recognition, such as GTA: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition, also perform consistently well, highlighting the power of familiarity and big IP in driving engagement. Games with deep, repeatable gameplay loops like Football Manager Mobile 2024 and Bloons TD 6 also do well, indicating that progression and daily play incentives are winners.

Interestingly, while IP tie-ins like Squid Game: Unleashed perform strongly when updated and promoted alongside its TV counterpart, as happened in the graph below when season 3 premiered on Netflix. It’s the only game that’s managed to unseat Solitaire during this period. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee long-term success, as you can see from the graph below, which shows it has been sliding in recent weeks. 

Battle For Lead In Netflix Mobile Games Top 10

Battle For Lead In Netflix Mobile Games Top 10

A few other call-outs and observations: 

  • New releases don’t guarantee playtime. Blood Line: A Rebel Moon Game hasn’t featured in the daily charts at all, and despite a beta period and splashy release, the game looks to have only gotten about 100K downloads across both Android and iOS (via SensorTower) since its release. Given it’s a live-service game, how long this one stays online remains to be seen. The film franchise from Zack Snyder also remains on ice at the time of writing. 
  • None of the games that were removed from Netflix in July featured in the top 10. 
  • Finally, we’re not expecting this list to evolve dramatically in the months and perhaps even in the years to come. As we’ve been covering, Netflix Games has shifted focus under new leadership to focus on games for television and the web. While we’ll still occasionally see games released on mobile, they certainly don’t seem to be of any priority. 

You can see the full data dump for the most played Netflix games here.

What’s been your favorite game on Netflix? Let us know in the comments. 

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