Can Netflix Make a Splash with FIFA World Cup Game?

If we were to use one word to describe Netflix’s foray into gaming, it would be “patient”. The movie and television streaming platform has made little secret of its desire to carve out a niche for itself in the gaming sector, with the first games coming to the platform in 2021. However, it has been steady in its approach over the last five years or so, quietly expanding its offering without a massive amount of fanfare. It’s not trying to challenge Steam or PlayStation, at least not yet.

For now, Netflix’s intent seems to be “owning the living room,” basically launching games – Stranger Things, Squid Game – that tie in with its ecosystem, but there feels like there is a bolder statement of intent coming with the recently-announced FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition. It is, as you might expect from the title, an officially branded FIFA game designed to complement the 2026 FIFA World Cup. As a marketing exercise, this is pretty much a coup for Netflix.

Lots of gaming options for soccer fans

There are plenty of great soccer/football games out there, from the AAA console-focused EA Sports FC 2026 to sweepstakes casino games like Goals to Glory: Football Fever at McLuck, yet to launch a FIFA-branded game at the beginning of the World Cup is bound to get Netflix noticed by gamers. The crossover appeal is massive, though it remains to be seen how gamers react to the game.

The term Launch Edition may also be significant, as it suggests more is to come. Right now, you can access the 16 official World Cup stadiums, the 48 teams and 1,248 players, and so on, but might there be more between FIFA and Netflix’s partnership beyond a launch edition? We should not forget that FIFA had a long-standing partnership with EA, releasing FIFA soccer games until EA Sports FC replaced it in 2023. The partnership ended at that point, but FIFA was – and is – still free to explore new avenues.

Again, though, we have to consider what Netflix wants here: As we said, it does not see itself as a direct competitor to the consoles and big platforms like Steam, so it follows that it will not see its FIFA-branded game as an alternative to EA Sports FC. It is, like other titles on Netflix, more casual than typical AAA games, and you are certainly not going to get the deep-mode Ultimate Team stuff you’d find on the EA title.

Indeed, it feels like part of Netflix’s strategy is simply to stay relevant at a time when the world is watching the biggest sports event on the planet. It won’t be broadcasting the World Cup, but it is adding a lot of World Cup content, including documentaries, so this feels like part of that, like an incentive to get people back on the streaming platform after the live coverage of the games has finished for the day.

Still, it does feel ambitious for a platform not known for games to release a title with FIFA’s blessing on the eve of such a massive sporting event like the World Cup. Perhaps when we look back at Netflix’s trajectory for gaming – and its endgame – some years from now, it will be revealed as a watershed moment.