Netflix has announced the acquisition of Ready Player Me, an avatar creation platform based in Estonia. This move follows Netflix’s strategic shift to focus more on games played on TV. The streamer plans to use the startup’s development tools and infrastructure to build avatars that will allow subscribers to carry their personas and fandom across different games.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ready Player Me had previously raised $72 million in venture backing from investors including a16z, Endeavor, Konvoy Ventures, Plural, and various angels, such as the co-founders of companies like Roblox, Twitch, and King Games.
The startup’s team of around 20 people will be joining Netflix, including founders Rainer Selvet, Haver Jarveoja, Kaspar Tiri, and Timmu Toke. Netflix does not have an estimate for when the avatars will launch, nor has it detailed which games or types of games will be first to feature them.
Following the acquisition, Ready Player Me will wind down its services on January 31, 2026, including its online avatar creation tool.
Ready Player Me CEO Timmu Toke stated that the company’s vision has always been to enable avatars and identities to travel across many games and virtual worlds, and expressed excitement about joining Netflix to scale that technology to a global audience.
This deal represents Netflix’s changing approach to games. The company initially entered the market four years ago by offering mobile games to subscribers. It acquired numerous gaming studios and titles under the leadership of Mike Verdu, its former VP of games, though this strategy saw mixed results. The company has since shut down or returned several of its studio acquisitions.
As part of its strategy shift, Netflix last year brought in a new executive, Alain Tascan, formerly of Epic Games, as its President of Games. Under Tascan, Netflix has expanded its gaming lineup for TV and begun focusing on party games, kids’ games, narrative games, and more mainstream titles.
Recently, the streamer released a slate of party games for TVs and mobile, including Netflix Puzzled, PAW Patrol Academy, WWE2K25, Red Dead Redemption, and Best Guess, a live party game with a $1 million jackpot. It also announced a new FIFA title would be coming to TVs in time for the 2026 World Cup.
Netflix’s CTO, Elizabeth Stone, recently announced the company was introducing interactive real-time voting for live content, testing it with a live cooking show and planning to bring it to a reboot of “Star Search.” This follows how the TV industry has embraced mobile, interactive experiences for audience voting.
Whether Netflix can convince its audience to think of its brand as a destination for interactive activities like gaming, rather than just passive viewing, remains to be seen.