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Netflix Buys Ready Player Me to Power Avatars and Party Games

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Saurabh Sirohiya/ZUMA Press Wire

Summary:

  • Netflix acquires Ready Player Me, signaling shift to TV-based gaming and cross-platform avatars.

  • Ready Player Me team joins Netflix to scale avatar tech globally, enabling identity travel across games.

  • Netflix plans to incorporate Ready Player Me’s tech for subscribers to carry personas across different Netflix games.

Netflix is making another sharp turn in its gaming experiment and this time, it’s all about identity.

The streaming giant announced it has acquired Ready Player Me, an Estonia-based avatar creation startup whose tech lets players carry a single digital persona across multiple games and platforms. The move signals Netflix’s growing focus on TV-based and party-style gaming, rather than the mobile-first strategy it launched with four years ago.


The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ready Player Me previously raised $72 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Endeavor, Konvoy Ventures, and Plural, with angel backing from founders tied to Roblox, Twitch, and King Games, according to TechCrunch.

Netflix confirmed that Ready Player Me’s roughly 20-person team will join the company, though only CTO Rainer Selvet is officially making the jump from the founding group. The startup will begin winding down its standalone services, including its PlayerZero avatar creation tool, on Jan. 31, 2026.

“Our vision has always been to enable avatars and identities to travel across many games and virtual worlds,” Ready Player Me CEO Timmu Tõke said in a statement. “I’m now very excited for the Ready Player Me team to join Netflix to scale our tech and expertise to a global audience.”

Netflix says it plans to use Ready Player Me’s development tools and infrastructure to let subscribers carry their personas and fandom across different Netflix games. Exactly which titles will support avatars, and when they’ll launch, remains unclear.

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When Netflix first entered gaming, it leaned heavily on mobile titles that subscribers accessed through their existing accounts. The strategy delivered mixed results. Big-name releases like GTA: San Andreas drew attention, but many smaller titles struggled to find an audience. Over time, Netflix quietly shut down or spun out several game studios it had acquired.

That reset accelerated after Alain Tascan, formerly of Epic Games, took over as Netflix’s president of games. Under his leadership, Netflix has shifted toward experiences designed for TVs, emphasizing party games, kids’ titles, and mainstream franchises that fit the lean-back living room vibe.

Recent releases include Netflix Puzzled, PAW Patrol Academy, WWE 2K25, and a slate of party games that use smartphones as controllers. The company has also announced a new FIFA title set to arrive ahead of the 2026 World Cup, further cementing its interest in shared, couch-friendly play.

At TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this fall, Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone said the company is experimenting with real-time interactivity, including live voting during programming. That same thinking appears to be driving its gaming strategy: blur the line between watching, playing, and participating.

The Ready Player Me acquisition fits neatly into Netflix’s broader ambition to make its platform feel less passive and more communal. Avatars could become the connective tissue between Netflix shows, games, and live interactive experiences, turning fandom into something you inhabit rather than just watch.

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