Yahoo Finance Netflix (NFLX) Expands Gaming Portfolio With Four New Games
Netflix NFLX is keeping users engaged through its expanding portfolio of games. This month, the streaming giant launched four new games including Netflix Stories: Love is Blind, Storyteller, Ghost Detective and Vikings Valhalla.
Ghost Detective was developed by Wooga while Vikings Valhalla was developed by Tilting Point and Emerald City Games. Netflix Stories: Love is Blind was developed by Boss Fight, a Netflix Game Studio. Puzzle game Storyteller from Annapurna Interactive and Daniel Benmergui is now available for the first time on mobile.
Netflix’s games portfolio now includes roughly 70 titles. It is leveraging games to keep users engaged on its platform amid intensifying competition from the likes of Disney DIS, Apple AAPL and Amazon AMZN.
While Netflix shares have returned 28.7% year to date, shares of Amazon and Apple have returned 50% and 32.5%, respectively, on a year-to-date basis. Disney shares have declined 7.8%.
Netflix’s strong foreign language content portfolio has been a key catalyst in driving share price performance. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock is strengthening its footprint in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, with a plethora of content and initiatives that support creativity. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
In second-quarter 2023, APAC’s paid subscriber base increased 16.5% year over year to 40.55 million, adding 1.07 million new paid subscribers. In comparison, the subscriber base in the United States and Canada, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Latin America increased 3.1%, 9.4% and 7.2%, on a year-over-year basis, respectively.
Korean content has been a major growth driver for Netflix. It is adding an array of Korean originals to its portfolio, including Mask Girl, Behind Your Touch and Destined With You. It recently confirmed the production of Aema, a Korean original series following the struggles of Hui-ran and Joo-ae in creating the 1980s hit film Madame Aema, set in 80s Chungmuro.
Apart from Korean shows, Netflix is expanding its footprint in India through partnerships with the likes of Yash Raj Films and acclaimed director Neeraj Pandey’s Friday Storytellers LLP, the digital content production arm of Friday Filmworks.
Netflix’s Prospects Bright in 2023
Netflix now expects revenue growth to accelerate in the second half of 2023, driven by the launch of the paid sharing initiative and an expanding content offering.
For the third quarter of 2023, Netflix now forecasts earnings of $3.52 per share, indicating an almost 10% increase from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter. Total revenues are anticipated to be $8.52 billion, suggesting growth of 7% year over year and on a forex-neutral basis.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Netflix's third-quarter revenues is pegged at $8.53 billion, indicating 7.59% year-over-year growth. The consensus mark for earnings increased by a penny over the past 30 days to $3.49 per share.
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