On FIFA and Netflix’s New Partnership

It’s not certain Netflix wants you to think of it as a gaming company. Certainly not as a competitor to PlayStation or Xbox. But its decision to launch an official FIFA soccer game as part of the subscription, on the TV screen, without a console and without a controller, suggests it’s playing an entirely different game. A battle for the living room? Perhaps more accurately, a battle for attention in the living room. In this case, football, the most popular sport in the world, is the tool.

Since 2021, Netflix has been slowly building a gaming layer that doesn’t feel like gaming. Something you can have without really noticing. More than a hundred games are already available today as part of the subscription, with no ads and no in app purchases, most of them short, casual, the kind that don’t require commitment or special skill. Fun for the lazy. The FIFA move is the first time Netflix connects that strategy to a cultural brand recognized even by people who have never opened a gaming app. And that connection isn’t accidental. Football is the last truly global language that still cuts across age, culture, and technology. The sport is thriving, and even in the US, thanks Messi, interest continues to grow.

Now look, for FIFA this is of course an attempt to redefine its place after the split from EA. It may not be direct competition, but rather an approach to a completely different audience, yet still. Instead of channel surfing through endless titles and complaining there’s nothing to watch on Netflix, there’s now another alternative. For now, at least, that’s enough. Naturally there are many more challenges ahead, including operational ones, but if the experiment succeeds, the sky, or the ceiling, is the limit. And if it doesn’t work? No big deal. A minor setback. Until the next thing.