How I play free AAA video games with a Netflix subscription

Summary

Netflix offers a variety of video games, including popular AAA titles like Civilization 6 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
To play games on Netflix, open the app and select from the mobile games section – no additional purchases required.
While not replacing dedicated gaming systems, Netflix’s growing game library provides new experiences and is worth exploring.

Netflix is certainly most known for its wide selection of TV shows and movies. Even if it sometimes cancels things prematurely, it’s no doubt the household name when it comes to streaming services. What you might not know is there are quite a few video games tucked away on the service. If you’ve decided Netflix isn’t worth it anymore, maybe checking out some of the games could change your mind.

While you won’t find games like The Last of Us or God of War on Netflix, you can find some AAA games. An important note is these aren’t AAA games of today, but they are mostly AAA games of generations ago. There are still some highly popular and addicting games like Dead Cells and Hades, but there’s also Civilization 6 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Essentially, Netflix has a well-rounded selection of games for lovers of any genre if you’re looking for something to play on your phone. Civilization 6 in particular is a good get because it includes all of the game’s DLC completely free of charge.

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Netflix

Netflix is a global streaming service offering on-demand access to movies, TV shows, documentaries, and original content. Founded in 1997 as a DVD rental service, it transitioned to streaming in 2007 and now operates in over 190 countries.

Subscription with ads: $6.99
Premium Subscription: $15.49 or $22.99 options
Simultaneous streams: 2-4

Netflix sucks for 70 million people and will probably get worse

It was announced this week that Netflix’s subscription with ads hit a major milestone with the $6.99 plan hitting 70 million monthly users up significantly from the 40 million monthly ad-supported users Netflix reported in May. And while Netflix is currently celebrating this number, I wouldn’t be so quick to bust out the champagne. I currently get the ad-supported version of Netflix for free as a T-Mobile wireless subscriber. However, I always tell people who ask me if they should downgrade to this cheaper option that if I were paying even one dollar for the ad-supported version of Netflix, I would cancel it. And it’s not just because of the constant ads (though those are annoying too), the real problem is the availability of content. Because of Netflix’s varied licensing deals, a lot of popular shows and movies cannot be streamed at all on Netflix’s cheapest plan. This mostly applies to movies, with hundreds of films from cult classics like Zombieland to more recent hits like Spid

How to find games on Netflix for free

A good selection of games

Netflix

If you have an active Netflix subscription, the only thing you have to do is open up Netflix on your device and start browsing through the offerings. There’s no extra purchase to make, and if you want to play Hades, the only thing you have to do is click on it and start playing. Not everything is AAA, but there are still some indie gems worth checking out.

Open Netflix on your phone or tablet.
Go to the Mobile Games section.
Scroll through the list until you find something you like.
Add a game you plan on playing again in the future to your list so you can find it again.

If you know what game you want to play, you can also search for it on the App Store or Google Play, though some games have a “Netflix Version” which you’ll need to download to be able to play for free. There are many games you’ll want to come back to time and time again, so make sure you add those to your list so they aren’t hard to find. There’s a surprising number of games included on the service, so saving any time you can in getting back to a game is worth it in the long run.

Playing a game on your phone might not be the most ideal way of playing a game, but you might be shocked at just how well some games work on a mobile device. You can always connect a controller if you don’t want to stick with touch-screen controls too. You need to make sure the game you plan on playing has controller support beforehand so you don’t waste your time, however.

A preview photo of Squid Game Season 2 showing Player 456 conversing with another man

I never get invested in Netflix shows and its all their fault

Netflix has been driving me away.

Netflix had a AAA game studio

What could’ve been

Netflix

Although the cutting-edge games aren’t on Netflix, that could’ve been a reality if Netflix had kept its AAA game studio open. Despite the closure of the studio, Netflix has continued to add more games to the service, so there must be some sort of internal number showing the growing library being worth it to the streamer.

While the main draw of the platform remains the movies and TV shows, it’s cool to see games taking up a big portion of the portfolio. It’s a solid way to stay engaged with the streaming service, and when games like Civ 6 hit with all the DLC included, it’s worth staying subscribed to check out some new things. Of course, a lot of games like San Andreas, Dead Cells, Spiritfarer, and Hades are all years-old games that are available on other platforms, so there’s a chance you already own them or played them if you’re a gamer.

For somebody just dipping their toes into gaming, there’s less of a chance of that being the case, and the Netflix subscription represents a great service to them. This won’t be a service that ever replaces the need for a gaming PC or console, but it’s a good way to keep up with some really good games you might’ve missed over the years, and many of them are from AAA developers.